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Category: IT Security

  • Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities

    Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities

    devopsy.kinsta.cloud is now providing a weekly DevOps jobs report through which opportunities for DevOps professionals will be highlighted to better serve our audience.

    Our goal in these challenging economic times is to make it easier for DevOps professionals to advance their careers.

    Of course, the pool of available DevOps talent is still relatively constrained, so when one DevOps professional takes on a new role it tends to create an opportunity for others.

    The five job postings shared this week are selected based on the company looking to hire, the vertical industry segment and, naturally, the pay scale being offered.

    We’re also committed to providing additional insights into the state of the DevOps job market. In the meantime, for your consideration:

    LinkedIn

    CVS Health
    Remote
    Lead Director – Enterprise Digital Security
    $140,000 to $280,000

    Indeed.com

    Splunk
    Remote
    DevOps and Observability Assigned Expert
    $143,200 to $196,900

    SimplyHired

    Book of the Month
    New York, New York
    Senior DevOps Engineer
    $140,000 to $180,000

    Monster.com

    Innova Solutions
    Plano, Texas
    DevOps Engineer
    $110,000 to $130,000

    Dice.com

    Solaris Finserv
    Kennesaw, Georgia
    DevOps Engineer
    $100,000 to $120,000

  • ReversingLabs Adds Ability to Detect Secrets in Application Binaries

    ReversingLabs Adds Ability to Detect Secrets in Application Binaries

    ReversingLabs today announced it added an ability to detect secrets exposed in application binaries to its Software Supply Chain Security (SSCS) platform.

    Tomislav Peričin, chief software architect for ReversingLabs, said this addition will make it easier for DevSecOps teams to identify secrets that are inadvertently left in applications as plain text or that can be discovered because of weak cryptography, scripts that have been included in directories that have secrets configuration files, packaging automation mistakes, compromised developer accounts or the activities of malicious insiders.

    The SSCS platform can identify more than 250 secret types out of the box, including private keys, version control, certs, tokens and more. Once they are identified, the platform also surfaces their precise location, which services are affected and if those secrets are exposed or leaked elsewhere. The platform also identifies third-party, open source, testing keys and other commonly shared secrets in addition to which secrets have already been exposed. Armed with those insights, it then becomes possible to better prioritize remediation efforts on actionable issues to reduce overall manual triage fatigue, noted Peričin.

    ReversingLabs also provides guidance for sensitive information policies, including documentation of public exposures and breakdowns of secrets used for web service access credentials, web service access tokens, web service API keys and webhook service access keys.

    Most software composition analysis (SCA) tools used to secure software supply chains are limited to identifying issues in source code. As applications become more modular, however, the odds authentication credentials such as login credentials, application programming interface (API) tokens and encryption keys might be left exposed because of a developer mistake substantially increase. The overall goal is to make it possible for DevSecOps teams to discover these issues in binary code before an application is deployed, noted Peričin. That “just in time” approach to secrets management includes canary token management and custom detection policies to better ensure application security.

    In general, secrets within applications are becoming more challenging to secure as cybercriminals increasingly scan repositories and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) platforms to find them. The ultimate goal is to inject malware into a software component that will be used in multiple downstream applications. Once activated, that malware will then create a backdoor through which cybercriminals can exfiltrate data or launch a full-blown ransomware attack. It was the latter type of attack that led to the U.S. government creating a formal National Cybersecurity Strategy to, in part, lock down the software supply chains employed by federal agencies to build applications.

    A recent survey published by ReversingLabs, however, found that while 87% of respondents agreed that software tampering has become a more frequently used cybersecurity attack, only 37% said they have any means to detect it. Only 7% said they could detect software tampering at each phase of the software development life cycle.

    It’s not clear to what degree best DevSecOps practices are currently being implemented within application development teams, but as more attacks are launched against software supply chains, it’s now only a matter of time before most DevOps teams are routinely required to scan code for exposed secrets and known vulnerabilities long before code is allowed anywhere near a production environment.

  • GitGuardian: 10M Exposed Secrets on GitHub

    GitGuardian: 10M Exposed Secrets on GitHub

    GitGuardian published an analysis of more than one billion commits to GitHub repositories that found 10 million occurrences of secrets, with one out of 10 developers exposing a secret.

    Mackenzie Jackson, a developer advocate for GitGuardian, said more than 80% of all the secrets caught by live monitoring GitHub were exposed through personal repositories, with a large share of them being corporate secrets. In fact, three million of the secrets discovered were unique instances, with 5.5 commits out of every 1,000 made exposing a secret.

    On a year-over-year basis, the report also found that the number of hard-coded secrets discovered in these repositories increased 67%. More than half the secrets discovered (56%) contained a generic password.

    There appeared to be no correlation between developer experience and the number of secrets exposed. Junior and senior developers are equally predisposed to making the same mistakes, said Jackson. The most common mistake is secrets left exposed because developers used them to simplify access to components and resources when building their applications and then forgot to remove them when the application was deployed in a production environment.

    Secrets management is, of course, getting more attention as more organizations review their software supply chain processes in the wake of a series of high-profile security breaches. The issue with secrets management is cybersecurity teams are usually a lot more focused on discovering vulnerabilities than looking for instances of poorly secured credentials. Once an application is deployed in a production environment, it may be months before anyone discovers an issue—if it’s discovered at all. In fact, the number of existing applications running in production environments that have issues with how secrets are managed could be staggering.

    In theory, at least, the adoption of DevSecOps best practices should be mitigating this issue, but as the volume of code stored in repositories continues to increase, it would appear more fundamental mistakes are being made. Cybercriminals, meanwhile, have a greater appreciation today for weaknesses in software supply chains, so many of them are scanning repositories for secrets that will enable them to breach an application.

    Of course, there’s a lot more attention being paid to secure software supply chains, especially in the wake of the Biden administration creating a National Cybersecurity Strategy that requires Federal agencies to, among other things, lock down software development life cycles on an end-to-end basis. Most enterprise IT organizations, if they have not done so already, are expected to follow suit.

    As a result, DevOps teams should expect to see more cybersecurity professionals focusing more on secrets management. Developers, naturally, will not want to be called out for mismanaging secrets, so over time, the overall state of application security should steadily improve. The issue, of course, is the volume of attacks against software supply chains is expected to increase. Many previous mistakes are likely to come back and haunt developers and the organizations that rely on their code and wreak havoc downstream.

  • Tips For Securing CI/CD Pipelines

    Tips For Securing CI/CD Pipelines

    Most development teams want to increase the pace of their software delivery. As such, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) has grown in importance, helping push code from build to production as seamlessly as possible. CI/CD pipelines often loop in many elements and may comprise a diverse stack of tools, automations and various languages. But because of this, the attack surface can be large. And as gaps in the CI/CD toolchain emerge, so do security concerns.

    In recent years, we’ve seen several high-profile cases where CI/CD environments were compromised. For example, take the Circle CI breach, in which a bad actor accessed Circle CI production systems. Others include the compromise of the SolarWinds build system and the Codecov breach. CI/CD security issues are alarming because so much control and automation are given to a pipeline. Unauthorized CI/CD access could be leveraged to publish malicious code or steal sensitive information.

    I recently met with Daniel Krivelevich, co-founder and CTO of Cider Security (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), to better understand the risks facing modern CI/CD. Krivelevich is a seasoned CI/CD security expert and co-author of the Top 10 CI/CD Security Risks framework, which OWASP adopted in late 2022. According to Krivelevich, there is a general lack of knowledge and visibility into these risks. “The CI/CD ecosystem as a whole is full of holes and opportunities for attackers,” he said.

    Below, we’ll review some of the risks that CI/CD pipelines face and offer general ways to mitigate some of these concerns. Hopefully, with greater security awareness around CI/CD threats, both tooling providers and users can begin to diffuse the potential of attacks against their systems.

    The Top Concerns Facing CI/CD Security

    The OWASP Top 10 CI/CD Security Risks framework covers the most impactful risks within modern engineering systems and gaps in CI/CD. It was informed by analyzing many attacks in recent years and was compiled with insights from numerous experts. Krivelevich hopes the framework will spark discussions around the mindset defenders should have when they’re looking to protect the modern engineering ecosystem. The top 10 risks are as follows:

    • CICD-SEC-1: Insufficient Flow Control Mechanisms
    • CICD-SEC-2: Inadequate Identity and Access Management
    • CICD-SEC-3: Dependency Chain Abuse
    • CICD-SEC-4: Poisoned Pipeline Execution (PPE)
    • CICD-SEC-5: Insufficient Pipeline-Based Access Controls (PBAC)
    • CICD-SEC-6: Insufficient Credential Hygiene
    • CICD-SEC-7: Insecure System Configuration
    • CICD-SEC-8: Ungoverned Usage of Third-Party Services
    • CICD-SEC-9: Improper Artifact Integrity Validation
    • CICD-SEC-10: Insufficient Logging and Visibility

    Before an organization can dissect these individual risks, however, they must overcome an even bigger problem—a critical lack of understanding regarding the CI/CD ecosystem and the many elements under the hood. Since CI/CD is not traditionally viewed as a security risk, this can result in insecure default configurations, insecure processes and systems not adopting a secure-by-design approach.

    “There’s a big gap between the level of understanding and opportunities attackers have and the knowledge defenders have over what attackers can do,” said Krivelevich. “Organizations traditionally have not been proactive enough in understanding this, unlike other elements that are more traditionally recognized as part of the attack surface. The main gap is a mindset shift.”

    Tips to Secure CI/CD

    So, knowing the above risks, what are some best practices to secure CI/CD pipelines? Krivelevich shared some tips to keep in mind.

    Bring CI/CD under the security umbrella. First, realize that CI/CD should be scrutinized. This will require an awakening in the community and more proactive effort than before. Krivelevich encouraged development teams to place it on their roadmaps and think about it.

    Map the attack surface. Before implementing security measures, you need to know what you’re protecting. Therefore, it’s a good idea to map your CI/CD environment and produce an inventory of assets. Cataloging the total surface area of dependencies and integrations is necessary to understand risks and helps mitigate CICD-SEC-10: Insufficient Logging and Visibility.

    Keep this updated regularly. Since the cadence of change is fast, teams will want constant visibility into their ecosystem and what’s under the hood. This may even lead to shadow IT, as per CICD-SEC-8: Ungoverned Usage of Third-Party Services. Therefore, Krivelevich recommended keeping a regularly updated inventory. This means continually mapping control systems, container registry artifacts, plugins and all other assets used as part of CI/CD.

    Protect the software supply chain. Many building blocks make up the modern software delivery process. But, some dependencies may be abused or contain malicious code, as per risk CICD-SEC-3: Dependency Chain Abuse. Dependencies within the CI/CD process may be prone to a host of open source vulnerabilities.

    Safeguard CI/CD credentials. CI/CD tools “possess secrets to most sensitive crown jewels in an organization,” Krivelevich explained. Therefore, access tokens and secrets related to CI/CD tools should be protected to avoid costly credential leaks. A zero-trust approach to CI/CD could help avoid CICD-SEC-2: Inadequate Identity and Access Management.

    By creating a virtual heat map of areas to address, organizations will be more informed and better equipped to assess risk. And according to Krivelevich, by implementing these best practices, defenders have a lot of power to raise security expectations in the CI/CD space. “When defenders and users become more diligent about security, the requirements from vendors will increase.”

    CI/CD is the Beating Heart, Don’t Let it Break

    “The engineering ecosystem and pipelines themselves are the beating heart of engineering,” said Krivelevich. And as this system becomes a larger part of what makes a business tick, it will be more heavily relied upon for mission-critical tasks and retaining agility.

    Yet, many building blocks comprise the contemporary software delivery process, and CI/CD pipelines can be a risky area due to the number of systems they touch. Further complicating things is the fact that the delivery ecosystem wasn’t traditionally viewed in security terms. This combination of many opportunities and limited security oversight makes CI/CD lucrative for attackers.

    Rectifying the top 10 risks is a relatively easy gap to address, said Krivelevich—what’s not so easy is the mindset shift required to take CI/CD security seriously. Organizations that invested deeply into microservices and rapid engineering processes will most likely be more susceptible to attacks, he added, since they typically use a diverse array of tools and a complex, integrated delivery process.

  • Good Things Happen When DevSecOps and Cloud Collide

    Good Things Happen When DevSecOps and Cloud Collide

    The marriage of cloud and software development is arguably the heart and soul of digital transformation. Providing pathways to greater efficiencies, lower costs and greater enterprise performance, the duo is poised to fundamentally transform industries as we know them. The compounding complexities of hybrid cloud operations and software supply chains, however, have led to a greater risk of vulnerabilities, errors and attacks.

    Increasingly wrapped around microservices, containers and orchestration platforms, the complexities of cloud expansion and software development couldn’t be more intertwined or expose more complicated risks than they do today.

    Software: A World of Consistent Change

    The state of software development is one of consistent change. Whether we call it agile or adaptive matters far less than the need to infuse operations with a new mindset and culture about the need for continuous development. Increasingly that includes the infusion of security disciplines and technologies directly into the main artery of that development.

    Enter DevSecOps, an approach to software that integrates security initiatives at every stage of the software development lifecycle to deliver high-performing secure applications.

    The cause is not lost on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and its cybersecurity center of excellence (NCCoE) which has announced a DevSecOps project dedicated to “developing and documenting an applied risk-based approach and recommendations for secure DevOps and software supply chain practices consistent with the secure software development framework (SSDF), cybersecurity supply chain risk management (C-SCRM), and other NIST, government, and industry guidance.”

    This is a far cry from software development of old. According to CTO Emeritus, Hu Yoshida, “Software, once the product of developers confined to writing long lines of code for specific applications, is now an exercise of integration – an amalgamation of third-party components provided by a variety of vendors, cloud providers, and open source software (OSS) groups. In fact, today, as much as 90% of code comes from such outlets, creating a software supply chain.”

    Although these new processes provide great advantages in terms of access to innovation and faster development cycles, the addition of external touchpoints and third-party software increases the risk of flaws, mistakes, and vulnerabilities. These risks only rise further when considering their deployment, usage, and management across complex hybrid cloud environments.

    How to Take Advantage of the Collision

    Cloud-based data is accounting for 39% of successful cyberattacks. Containerized applications, which have been a boon to both migration and management can also lead to vulnerabilities – which is fitting for security to be cited as a top concern for more than half of the organizations surveyed.

    From business continuity to business performance, organizations must begin assuming a security posture that considers the rising confluence of cloud management and software development.

    The idea is simple: You must find a way, a process, a method, and the right partners to help secure all workloads across any cloud environment, regardless of the platform or the amount of data and application real estate needed.

    By establishing this model, organizations are able to create a fundamental layer of protection against the ever-evolving threat of cybercriminals. Take one of our large banking customers, for example, who runs critical applications on AWS with stringent security and compliance requirements. We implemented a secured framework to protect their applications running on modern, cloud-native services like containers and Lambda functions using DevSecOps principles and cloud-native SIEM solutions. This enables them to scale their business in the cloud without worrying about compliance violations.

    One of our large pharmaceutical customers with a very large presence in both AWS and Azure experienced challenges keeping their cloud security posture in pace with the growing business demands on the cloud, increasing risk to the environment. By establishing a security process using cloud security posture management, we were able to significantly reduce cloud misconfigurations and auto-remediate several cloud vulnerabilities proactively to improve the security posture of the environment.

    The bottom line is that building security into the workloads will provide a fundamental layer of protection. The collision of cloud and DevSecOps is real. Organizations would be wise to realize it and take advantage of it to dramatically improve business performance and resiliency.

  • Survey: More Cybersecurity Pros Embedded in DevOps Teams

    Survey: More Cybersecurity Pros Embedded in DevOps Teams

    A survey of 2,500 C-level executives published today by Palo Alto Networks found 81% of organizations have embedded cybersecurity professionals within their DevOps teams.

    Despite the presence of those cybersecurity professionals, however, the survey also suggested there is much work to do in terms of optimizing DevSecOps workflows. A full 90% of organizations cannot detect, contain and resolve cybersecurity threats within an hour, the survey found.

    Bob West, chief security officer for Palo Alto Networks, said most of the challenges associated with DevSecOps are directly related to persistent cloud security issues. More than three-quarters of organizations (78%) said they had distributed responsibility for cloud security, but almost half (47%) said a majority of their workforce still does not understand their security responsibilities.

    In many cases, developers with little to no cybersecurity expertise are responsible for provisioning cloud infrastructure. As a result, misconfigurations that create security issues are commonplace, noted West. That’s especially problematic because three-quarters of organizations (75%) are deploying new or updated code to production weekly, with almost 40% committing new code daily, the survey found. Given that developers far outnumber cybersecurity professionals in most organizations, it remains challenging to ensure application code is secure, noted West.

    In addition to improving the overall state of cloud security, organizations need to focus on fundamentals such as training developers to be more mindful of cybersecurity issues, he added. Most developers never had any formal cybersecurity training, so it’s up to organizations to make sure that particular skills gap is closed, he noted. In addition, organizations need to make sure they have a robust set of patch management processes in place alongside a capability to manage permissions and entitlements, added West.

    Overall, the survey found organizations are using more than 30 security tools, on average, including six to 10 dedicated to cloud security. More than three-quarters of respondents (76%) said relying on multiple security tools created blind spots that affected their ability to prioritize risk and prevent threats. A full 80% said they would benefit from a centralized security solution that sits across all of their cloud accounts and services.

    One way or another, a rising tide of regulations focused on improving the security of software supply chains will force organizations to improve cloud security, said West. The survey showed there is a strong commitment in terms of making cybersecurity professionals an integral part of a DevOps workflow. The issue is that there are still a raft of training and process issues that need to be addressed at a time when cybercriminals are becoming increasingly adept at compromising applications both as they are developed and after they are deployed.

    Of course, training and modifying processes take time. DevSecOps is as much about changing culture as it is about acquiring new tools. DevOps teams are still highly committed to building and deploying applications as quickly as possible. The challenge is finding a way to insert a set of cybersecurity gates within those workflows without slowing down the pace at which applications are developed.

  • Logz.io Integrates ChatGPT With Observability Platform

    Logz.io Integrates ChatGPT With Observability Platform

    Logz.io has integrated the ChatGPT generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform with its Open 360 observability platform to extend its automated recommendation capabilities to reduce mean-time-to-remediation.

    ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is based on a large language model that Logz.io uses to enrich crowdsourced data. That approach enables ChatGPT to surface links to related information and best practices for resolving IT issues.

    Logz.io CTO Asaf Yigal said the company has integrated ChatGPT with its existing AI engine, dubbed Cognitive Insights, that applies machine learning algorithms to identify anomalies indicative of potentially critical IT issues. The company expects to be able to add other generative AI capabilities as additional advances are made, he added.

    The Logz.io Open 360 platform is based on open source OpenSearch, Prometheus and Jaeger software that the company has infused with machine learning algorithms. The integration with ChatGPT is enabled via an application programming interface (API) that OpenAI has provided.

    The overall goal is to employ AI to surface the most relevant issues a DevOps team needs to focus on without having to search huge volume of logs, tracing and metrics data, said Yigal. Generative AI platforms solve a fundamental cognitive load problem created today as DevOps teams collect more data, noted Yial. The more data a DevOps team collects, the harder it becomes to determine what’s going on in an IT environment, said Yigal. He added that generative AI platforms make it possible to analyze massive amounts of data at a scale that isn’t otherwise achievable.

    AI tools should make it possible to manage IT at a level of scale that eliminates many of the low-level data engineering and analytics tasks that previously required manual effort from a DevOps engineering team. It’s not clear how many other DevOps tools and platforms will be invoking generative AI capabilities in the months ahead, but DevOps teams should assume that large language models will soon be augmenting DevOps teams in ways that previously would have been thought unlikely.

    For example, discovering vulnerabilities in software running in production environments is about to become trivial as artificial intelligence (AI) platforms such as ChatGPT evolve. A generative AI platform can identify code vulnerabilities in much the same way as a traditional scanning tool. An AI platform, however, could theoretically monitor code repositories and scan them for vulnerabilities as updates and commits are being made in real-time. DevOps teams should be able to use generative AI platforms to discover and remediate these issues before code is deployed in a production environment.

    It’s just as probable bad actors will use the same platform to achieve the same goal, so from that perspective, many DevOps teams will now find themselves in an AI arms race to improve DevSecOps workflows.

    There are still lots of issues to be worked out in terms of the overall accuracy of generative AI platforms, but they will only become more intelligent as processors continue to advance. The issue now will be determining precisely where the man-machine interface for DevOps teams is today and in the future.

  • Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities

    Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities

    devopsy.kinsta.cloud is now providing a weekly DevOps jobs report through which opportunities for DevOps professionals will be highlighted as part of an effort to better serve our audience.

    Our goal in these challenging economic times is to make it easier for DevOps professionals to advance their careers. Of course, the pool of available DevOps talent is still relatively constrained, so when one DevOps professional takes on a new role, it creates an opportunity for others.

    The five job postings shared this week are selected based on the company looking to hire, the vertical industry segment and, naturally, the pay scale offered.

    We’re also committed to providing additional insights into the state of the DevOps job market. In the meantime, for your consideration:

    Dice.com

    Pyramid Systems
    Remote
    AWS Cloud DevOps Platform Engineer
    $160,000 to $200,000

    Monster.com

    Apidel Technologies
    Los Angeles, California
    Software engineer
    $140,000 to $160,000

    SimplyHired

    Cox Communications
    Atlanta, Georgia
    Senior DevSecOps Cybersecurity Architect
    $120,000 to $150,000

    LinkedIn

    EdgeLink
    Beaverton, Oregon
    DevOps Engineer
    $110,000 to $120,000

    Indeed.com

    CrowdStrike
    Remote
    DevOps engineer
    $105,000 to $195,000

  • Lineaje Unfurls Platform for Creating and Managing SBOMs

    Lineaje Unfurls Platform for Creating and Managing SBOMs

    Lineaje this week unfurled a platform for creating and managing the software bills of materials (SBOMs) that are increasingly mandated by enterprise IT organizations and government agencies.

    Fresh from raising $7 million in seed funding, Lineaje CEO Javed Hasan said the SBOM360 platform provides a simpler way to manage all the SBOMs that will soon inundate organizations.

    The SBOM360 platform makes it possible to use a search engine to discover all the components of an application and all the dependencies that exist within it, including vulnerabilities, and indicators of compromise (IOCs) in seconds, said Hasan. The company then adds fingerprinting technology that enables the platform to attest to the authenticity of the entire software supply chain, he added.

    While there is no shortage of tools for creating SBOMs, there are not as many platforms that enable DevOps teams to both create and manage them. In the wake of an executive order issued by the Biden administration requiring federal agencies to have an SBOM for all the software they use, interest in SBOMs to better secure software supply chains has significantly increased. However, very few organizations have a process in place that enables them to operationalize all the SBOMs that might be created.

    More challenging still, the pace at which software is being updated has accelerated to the point where many SBOMs are likely to be outdated. The only way to keep pace with that rate of change is to rely on a platform designed from the ground up to dynamically create SBOMs in seconds, noted Hasan.

    Finally, IT organizations are now being held more accountable for legacy software often polluted with vulnerabilities that need to be remediated, he added. As such, organizations need a tool that makes it simpler to identify vulnerabilities within the context of an SBOM.

    It’s not clear whether greater awareness of the need for SBOMs is translating into concrete action, but the expectation is that more organizations will soon be following the lead of the federal government by requiring them. That shift will naturally bring a lot of additional pressure to bear on DevOps teams. Historically, organizations tended to allow developers to aggregate software components without always checking to see if they are compromised. Cybercriminals are becoming increasingly more adept at injecting malware into software components in the hope that malware will find its way into any number of downstream applications.

    Regardless of the approach an organization takes to better secure software supply chains, more rigor is being applied to how software is built and deployed. The days when developers were free to aggregate software components as they saw fit by, for example, relying on open source software downloaded from a repository, are now at an end. The expectation now is the developer will be held accountable for the integrity of all components used within an application as organizations move to implement additional processes to more rigorously review code before it is deployed in a production environment.

  • Cisco AppDynamics Survey Surfaces DevSecOps Challenges

    Cisco AppDynamics Survey Surfaces DevSecOps Challenges

    A survey of 1,150 large enterprise IT professionals from the AppDynamics unit of Cisco suggested application security progress is being made slowly and steadily as organizations continue to embrace DevSecOps best practices.

    The survey finds that while more than three-quarters of respondents (76%) believe that DevSecOps is essential for organizations to effectively protect against a multi-staged security attack on the full application stack only 43% reported their organization has already started to implement DevSecOps workflows while another 46% said they are currently considering making the shift.

    More than three-quarters of respondents (78%) also said a lack of a shared vision between application development and security teams presents a challenge to application security over the next 12 months. More than half (55%) said they currently considered security to be more of an inhibitor of innovation than an enabler. Nevertheless, 81% admitted a lack of application security skills and resources is now an issue for their organization, with 79% acknowledging that securing the full application stack is now a priority for their organization.

    A full 92% admitted that the rush to rapidly innovate and respond to the changing needs of customers and users during the COVID-19 pandemic has come at the expense of robust application security. Well over half of respondents (58%) also noted their organization often ended up in ‘security limbo’ because they didn’t know what security issues to focus on and prioritize. A total of 88% acknowledged their organization could be doing more to secure the full stack of modern applications across the entire application life cycle.

    Not surprisingly, 93% said it’s important to be able to contextualize security so that they can correlate risk in relation to, for example, application performance, end user experience and business metrics. However, more than two-thirds (68%) reported that their current security solutions work well in silos but not together. A total of 85% stated that cultural changes to support the shift to a DevSecOps approach are important to improve application security.

    AppDynamics Executive CTO Gregg Ostrowski said it is apparent organizations are still wrestling with not just application security technologies but also people and process issues. The most critical issue is to knock down the silos that exist in organizations that often result in one team demonizing another, he added.

    Overall, application security is becoming more challenging as the attack surface expands. A full 89% of technologists reported that their organization experienced an expansion in its attack surfaces over the last two years, with almost half (46%) noting that this expansion is already increasing cybersecurity challenges. One of the primary drives of that expansion as been the rise of the internet-of-things (IoT) applications (59%), rapid adoption of cloud computing platforms (56%) and digital business transformation initiatives (51%).

    On the plus side, more than three-quarters of respondents (76%) said they believe artificial intelligence (AI) will play an increasingly important role in addressing application security challenges. The issue, of course, is how soon those advances might be made at a time when attacks against software supply chains are clearly on the rise.