ASPM Spotlight

Volume 1, Issue 3 | February 7, 2024

Not Enough Visibility or Too Much Data?

Visibility has always been the cornerstone of application security. In the beginning, organizations that wanted to secure their applications first needed to understand what was in their code. They turned to SAST, one of the first AST tools on the market, to scan proprietary code. SAST had a reputation for being noisy and slow. Other tools like DAST and IAST arrived on the scene to plug some of those holes. 

When using open source libraries became the accepted way to achieve new functionality fast, securing it became a huge focus. SCA entered the market, allowing organizations to gain visibility by scanning their codebases for open source components. 

With all the data generated by all these scanners, you would think that we would have coverage for our applications, yet still they continue to be attacked…and all too frequently the attackers are successful.

The truth is, modern AppSec has a problem with visibility. Yes, we have a lot of data pouring in from scan results – any security practitioner can tell you that they are inundated with alerts – but the results are coming from siloed tools. They lack the context required to help security teams make informed decisions. Though we have a lot of data coming in from scanners, the blind spots between tools is huge.

Insight: Data Silos Are Creating Visibility Issues and Blind Spots

According to The State of ASPM 2024, one of the major challenges arising from the use of so many application security tools is the formation of data silos. Data silos make it extremely difficult for developer and security teams to have complete visibility over their development pipelines.

In fact, when security professionals were asked to name their top AppSec concerns, gaps in visibility due to multiple tools (29%) was the second most common response.

Security professionals are also concerned that limited visibility into their development pipelines are creating troubling blind spots that impact their security posture.

Unsurprisingly, the more tools an organization uses, the more likely they are to be concerned about visibility. Security professionals surveyed who are using the highest number of AppSec tools are most likely to be concerned about various blind spots in their security posture and attack surface. This further highlights the fact that tool sprawl is a significant contributing factor to AppSec chaos.

Visibility Needs Context

Though scanning applications is a start, the data it generates on its own is not enough to build a full picture of your environment or your risk. Visibility requires context. Without it, you’re left with silos and blind spots. You’re stuck wading through 100% of alerts instead of focusing on the top 1% that actually make a difference.

For security to do their jobs effectively, they need to be able connect scan results with information about the context of each vulnerability. How severe is the violation? Has it been delivered to a production environment? Is it publicly exposed? These are all context questions that need to be answered in order for organizations to prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities.

Context is the key to understanding and, more importantly, reducing risk.

For more insights like this, download the full State of ASPM 2024 now.

ASPM Nation

Join ASPM Nation on Feb 29, a special three hour virtual summit brought to you by Cycode. The virtual stage will be filled with renowned security leaders who will educate, inspire and challenge conventional thinking to drive the world of application security forward.

🎤Nambivengadam Srinivasan, GM Cybersecurity + DevSecOps at Ford Motor Company

🎤 Gili Lev , MD Cybersecurity Cloud Security at EY

🎤 Itai M. Marongwe, Product Security Engineer at Okta  

🎤 Roxy Tait-Sanger , Head of AppSec in Fortune 1000 Financial Services firm

🎤 Clint Gibler , Founder of tldr;sec newsletter

🎤 Jamie Sadler , Head of Application Security at theScore

🎤 James Berthoty , Security Engineer at PagerDuty

🎤 Tanya Janca , Founder of She Hacks Purple

And drumroll, please…Do not miss our closing keynote speaker for ASPM Nation!

💥 Roland Cloutier , fmr-Global CSO of TikTok💥

Roland’s keynote at ASPM Nation will cover:

• Lessons learned from securing some of the largest, most complex businesses
• Why application security is a business and board-level priority
• Why ASPM is the solution that application security always needed
• How to create a security standard across applications

Save the date so you won’t miss out! Sign up today.

Registration is free!

Additional Resources

Interested in learning more? Check out the following resources: 

• The State of ASPM 2024 - full report
• AppSec Secrets webinar on Decoding the State of ASPM 2024
• Cycode Blogs:> Introducing an All-New Cycode: The Only Complete Approach to ASPM> Application Security Posture Management: Key Components for Complete Coverage> Cycode Discovers a Supply Chain Vulnerability in Bazel> CI/CD Pipeline Security: Best Practices Beyond Build and Deploy
• Cycode ASPM

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