Application Security a Growing Priority Among Security Pros

A Dark Reading survey finds most IT and security managers would rather wait to deploy applications than risk security flaws.

Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading

September 10, 2021

1 Min Read
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A majority of IT and security managers think security is important enough to delay application deployment, as indicated by a Dark Reading survey that found 78% are willing to handle delays with the hope of creating more secure software. 

Dark Reading surveyed 173 IT and cybersecurity professionals on a variety of topics related to application security, software development practices, commercial software use, and the relationship between enterprise IT security groups and software development teams. Results reveal the massive attack on network monitoring software SolarWinds Orion at the end of 2020 sent a chill down the spine of many security managers and heightened enterprise concerns over cyber compromise. More than half (52%) say incidents like the SolarWinds breach have caused changes in their evaluation and vetting processes for third-party app providers; 53% describe such apps as putting them at greater risk of a data breach.

Among some of the other survey highlights: 

  • 34% of IT and security managers say attackers with deep knowledge of application vulnerabilities present the greatest threat to app security.

  • 72% perceive the average application developer at their organization as being either "very knowledgeable" or "somewhat knowledgeable" about security.

  • 49% have an agile development process and have either fully or partially adopted a DevOps approach to software development.

  • 59% believe their organization is either "very knowledgeable" or "knowledgeable" about remediating new app vulnerabilities.

  • 41% treat API security the same as Web application security.

Read the full report here.

About the Author

Dark Reading Staff

Dark Reading

Dark Reading is a leading cybersecurity media site.

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