Making the Most of AppSec Budgets in 2023
As if COVID-19 wasn’t enough, we face another financial meltdown and the reality of lasting economic consequences. Our time away from each other through the pandemic has increased the need for web application security measures.
In many ways, we’ve become more dependent on web technologies to keep business as usual.
In light of the economic changes, budgets are thin. With this increased wariness on where money is best invested, it’s difficult to know where to cut back.
So, how do AppSec teams continue to keep up with increased risk, while seeing budget decreases?
Application Security Testing Continues to Be A Priority
Recent studies and reports point to the fact that web application attacks are increasing. With as much as a 257% rise in these attacks, AppSec continues to play an important role in the health of an organization. With the uptick in AppSec risks, the mitigation of security threats continues to be a priority.
Many teams are looking at new ways to combat the most advanced and capable cyber criminals. Budget or no budget, AppSec is here to stay.
Security Testing and Development Environments
It’s an old notion that security should be a checkbox at the end of a long development process. The truth is that web technologies evolve at a rapid pace, and these same stacks are growing larger than ever. With this additional growth comes more security vulnerabilities. Take a look at the latest framework or library and you’ll see hundreds of dependencies and a variety of APIs in use. It’s more difficult than ever to check a box at the end of it all and keep sensitive data secure.
The best way to mitigate security issues and make the most of the budget is to use tools that exist within your organization. But another useful method is to add additional eyes to the process in the form of current developers and team members.
By combining security awareness/testing and development in one go, you’ll save time and introduce a development culture that prioritizes security from the start. This will help take the pressure off of your internal security teams and gives them the space to work on more serious threats.
Your AppSec teams will thank you for it, your budget will go toward other solutions, and your developers will gain skills that are actionable and useful as they grow within your organization. They can then advocate as security champions as your teams develop new features.
The major benefit to budgets here comes from minimizing the need for external testing resources. They’re often costly and serve as a great third-party audit to code, but may not have the vestment in continued best practices. Each look they take accrues billable hours and takes away from the potential for development teams to learn.
Shift left and make it a point to involve developers at the onset of the project. By producing code that is security forward, your teams will mitigate the risk of security issues down the road. It could be helpful to bring them into an environment that provides resources for them to learn and grow their security skillset as well.
These developers can then work as team leads and help foster a security-first development culture, where everyone contributes to help with application security requirements and practices.
Implement Affordable Testing Solutions
In today’s modern security environment, where budget constraints are a growing part of technology strategy, teams may benefit from open-source point solutions.
While cobbling a tech stack together from scratch may seem like too much work, there’s a benefit to implementing these innovative solutions, especially when starting an application security program from scratch.
The downside to these solutions is that they often lack the tools that improve efficiency and centralize efforts. With some work and customization, they may prove to be the right mix of solutions for your organization to take advantage of.
If You Must Use Paid Testing, Don’t Waste it
If you can’t avoid the use of third-party consultants, consider making an extra effort to ensure they’re ready to hit the ground running. Streamline the briefing process, look to scope the project for the appropriate tests, and make sure penetration testers have everything they need to make the most of their time.
It pays to prepare for their time and can help mitigate additional billable hours when it comes time to put the pedal to the metal. Account for potential testing gaps, and provide resources to keep consultants on target.
Implement a Platform That Covers All of Your Bases
While cobbling together tech stacks with dozens of low-cost solutions may help solve specific problems, a single source of truth can help teams stay organized and communicate with each other more.
Platforms help mitigate additional spending by solving multiple problems at the same time in one place. Not only will your teams benefit from less software to keep track of, but you’ll also spend less overall chasing the same issues down.
The benefits of detailed analytics and reporting may help mitigate potential security issues down the road.
Application Security as a Sustainable Practice
Application security best practices are changing, and the realities of limited budgets are setting in. Organizations are unable to continue AppSec practices as they have in the past. The best method to keep up is to revamp the perspective on application security testing and incorporate more throughout the DevSecOps process. As your teams complete each step, awareness and automation can help make the most of the process. Software quality can improve and everyone can contribute to application security. The more eyes on the problem, the less likely it will become a more serious issue. This helps further reduce the cost of AppSec.
Testing in the development process isn’t the end all though. Data breaches and serious attacks are best mitigated with continuous testing in the deployed environment as well.
