How A Major Australian Bank Shifts Left With GitHub Advanced Security
What We Achieved In 12 Weeks
The Challenge
A major Australian bank sought to uplift its software security posture by implementing GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS) as a core component of its secure engineering platform. The objective was not only to deploy security tooling, but to ensure it could be operated, scaled and sustained across a complex, multi-team engineering environment from day one.
The bank faced challenges integrating security controls seamlessly into existing development workflows while avoiding increased friction for engineers. Without a clear operating model, there was a risk of inconsistent vulnerability triage, unclear ownership of security findings and limited visibility of remediation progress across portfolios. Additionally, the bank needed to ensure GHAS aligned with its enterprise security standards, regulatory requirements and risk management practices, all while remaining practical for teams to adopt at scale.
The Solution
TL Consulting delivered GitHub Advanced Security through a phased, milestone-driven rollout, combining platform enablement with a scalable operating model to support enterprise-wide adoption.
The engagement commenced with a structured strategic planning phase, establishing a GHAS reference architecture, security principles and implementation guidelines aligned to the bank’s secure engineering standards. Repositories were prioritised based on risk and how business critical they were. Then pilot applications were identified to validate patterns before broader rollout.
A controlled rollout followed, enabling GHAS capabilities within a limited set of pilot teams. Code scanning and security workflows were integrated into GitHub Actions, allowing the bank to validate configurations, refine developer experience and prove operational readiness in a low-risk environment.
As adoption scaled, the focus shifted to governance and reporting, introducing standardised triage processes, ownership models and enterprise-level reporting of GHAS findings. This provided security and risk stakeholders with consistent visibility into vulnerabilities, remediation progress and overall security posture.
The final phase delivered an enterprise rollout, automating security workflows and extending GHAS across the organisation. Secure-by-default configurations, automation and enablement ensured the solution could scale to thousands of users while remaining sustainable, auditable and aligned with the bank’s regulatory and risk management obligations.
The Outcomes
Security Shifted Left
Automated security checks occur before engineers submit their code for review, ensuring vulnerabilities are found earlier.
Defence In Depth
Multiple layers of security controls (GHAS, Checkmarx, Black Duck) to ensure vulnerabilities are detected.
Empowered Developers
Provides tools and insights within their workflow (IDE integration, pull requests, commits).
Continuous Security Monitoring
Real-time alerts for source code during the development lifecycle and continuously after code has been deployed.
Visibility and Traceability
Provides actionable dashboards and audit logs for all findings on the enterprise level to report on the security risk.
Privacy By Design
Protects sensitive data throughout the development process such as secrets and API tokens.
This resulted in:
10k+ Repositories protected by GHAS: Enterprise-wide security coverage embedded directly into the software delivery lifecycle, eliminating unmanaged code risk across portfolios.
5k+ Engineers using GHAS features in their day-to-day workflow: Security integrated seamlessly into developer workflows, enabling early detection and remediation without impacting productivity.
7k+ Security alerts triggered during the initial rollout: Immediate visibility into previously unknown vulnerabilities, enabling risk-based prioritisation and targeted remediation.
25% Reduction in mean time to remediate vulnerabilities: Standardised triage, clear ownership and automation significantly reduced exposure to known security risks.
Accelerate Cloud Adoption with Financial Accelerators
As specialised Microsoft Solutions Partners, we have access to the Azure Migrate and Modernize & Azure Accelerate offerings, enabling us to secure subsidised incentive funding for Proof of Values/PoCs, MVPs and migrations to further enable your business. This funding catalyst, combined with our expertise, accelerates your delivery model with TL Consulting at it’s core.
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