Over the past year, there have been a staggering 502 security incidents across major platforms, including 48 categorized as high-risk, leading to a combined total of 955 hours of significant and critical interruptions—equivalent to an astonishing 120 business days. These findings come from ‘The DevOps Threats Unwrapped’ report, compiled by the GitProtect research team, which meticulously evaluated incidents from GitHub, GitLab, Atlassian, and Azure DevOps.
The year 2024 marked a pivotal moment in the realm of data protection, highlighted by the Crowdstrike-Microsoft incident, which exemplified the magnitude of security breaches. This event exposed the vulnerabilities of even the most formidable organizations, resulting in $5.4 billion in damages and impacting 8.5 million Windows devices globally.
However, these alarming statistics depict only the beginning of a broader trend. The past year saw a notable increase in attacks aimed at SaaS applications and DevOps tools, a trajectory that is expected to gain momentum in 2025.
In light of this, GitProtect.io, a leading name in DevOps backup and disaster recovery, has released the latest edition of The DevOps Threats Unwrapped study. This analysis uncovers critical vulnerabilities, extended outages, human errors, and data breaches that have recently influenced the DevOps cybersecurity landscape, with a focus on tools such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Jira, and Azure DevOps.
The findings indicate that in 2024, there were 502 incidents affecting DevOps tools, including 48 incidents classified as high-risk. Altogether, these events caused a severe impact on availability, totaling 955 hours of major and critical disruptions—equating to nearly 120 working days. Coupling this with incidents that caused temporary outages or performance degradation, the true scale of the impact is staggering.
To put this into context, 955 hours is sufficient time for a small yacht to sail from Europe across the Atlantic, take a quick detour in the Caribbean, reach the East Coast of the United States, and return back to Portugal.
Analyzing the data by platform reveals that GitHub endured 124 incidents, 26 of which were highly impactful, resulting in 134 hours of disruption. Bitbucket reported 38 incidents, with 4 classified as critical, leading to 4 hours of interruption. Jira had 132 incidents, including 10 critical ones, resulting in 17 hours of outages. Azure DevOps recorded 111 incidents, with one serious case lasting nearly 2 hours. Finally, GitLab experienced a total of 97 incidents, including 7 related to service disruptions, amounting to an extensive 798 hours of downtime.
The Growing Threat Landscape Beyond Vendor Outages
It is important to note that service interruptions represent a fraction of the overall challenges faced by organizations. The ecommerce landscape is increasingly besieged by threats such as hardcoded secrets, unsecured databases, repo jacking, supply chain infiltrations, and the escalating threat posed by AI-generated attacks, compounded by enduring human errors.
The GitProtect.io report details that renowned brands, including Mercedes, The New York Times, Schneider Electric, Cisco, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, and Cloudflare, reported breaches or hacking incidents linked to their GitHub, GitLab, Atlassian, or Azure DevOps platforms last year. Further details on these incidents are available on The DevOps Threats Unwrapped report page.
The tech, software, fintech, banking, media, and entertainment industries were among the top three affected sectors, with healthcare, government agencies, telecommunications, and manufacturing also being significantly impacted.
Shared Responsibility Models and Enhanced Compliance Requirements
In defense of SaaS providers, the Shared Responsibility model prevalent among most SaaS and cloud services illustrates a division of cybersecurity responsibilities. Platforms such as GitHub, GitLab, Atlassian, and Microsoft are informing users of their role in upholding security measures, including essential DevOps data backup at the account level.
This year, a heightened focus on extensive user education surrounding these responsibilities and data security will be vital. There is a positive indication that the escalation of threats has raised awareness among SaaS clients about the necessity of securing their data. Gartner predicts that by 2028, 75% of enterprises will prioritize backup for SaaS applications as a key requirement, a considerable increase from just 15% in 2024.
Legislative and regulatory attention has similarly increased, with 2024 witnessing an uptick in compliance mandates. Notably, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) that became effective on February 17, mandates robust data protection measures, including backups of Git repositories, Jira projects, and other DevOps tools.
Looking Ahead: Insights and Best Practices for 2025
As cyber threats continue to evolve, it is imperative that organizations maintain vigilance. The insights gathered in the 2024 DevSecOps Threats Unwrapped report by GitProtect.io offer strategic recommendations and forecasts for 2025, enabling businesses to strengthen their data security frameworks and practices.
For a comprehensive overview of these findings and expert guidance, visit the official report page.
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Author – about us
GitProtect.io by Xopero Software is a leading automated and manageable backup and disaster recovery solution serving Jira, Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, and more. It ensures that DevOps teams have data access and uninterrupted workflow even during service outages. Valued by security teams, it supports adherence to the Cloud Shared Responsibility Model, compliance with security standards (such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2), and provides audit-ready governance, advanced reporting, and superior security controls.
For more information: https://gitprotect.io/
