Security reviews are not an afterthought. For development teams, they are the spine that holds the entire delivery process upright. Without them, every new feature, every API change, and every dependency update risks becoming a doorway for attackers. Strong security reviews catch problems before they can damage users, data, or your reputation.
A development team security review is more than scanning code with automated tools. It means a structured, repeatable process that checks software at every stage. Source control rules. Commit hooks. Dependency checks. Code reviews with a dedicated security lens. Controlled environments where code runs in isolation. Explicit approval steps before release. All of these should integrate directly into the workflow so they happen by default.
Threat modeling belongs at the start, not at the end. Teams must think about how data moves, where it is stored, and how it can be exposed. This feeds into designing access controls that fit least-privilege principles, ensuring only the right services and people can reach sensitive systems.