CTO's Guide: 6 Steps to Build an Application Security Strategy That Truly Works

And the truth is, most product teams aren’t lacking technical talent. What they’re missing is a clear, robust application security policy and scalable application security strategy that fits the way they actually build and ship software.

This guide is for teams at that inflection point. You might not have a dedicated AppSec hire (yet), but you know that adding features isn’t enough if a single missed vulnerability can undo months of work and user trust.

We’ll walk through how to design a security strategy that protects and prioritizes, complements your development process, and gives you the confidence to scale without slowing down. And if you need help putting any of it into practice, we're here for that too.

Key takeaways

• Security needs a strategy, not only secure code and tools. Define what you're protecting, how many potential security risks you can take, your internal and external threats, and who owns security before choosing solutions.
• From FlyCASS SQL injection to Okta's broken auth and Snowflake data exposure, even well-resourced systems fail without focused oversight and continuous monitoring.
• When thinking about how to develop application security strategy, remember: web, mobile, cloud, API, and containerized apps face different risks. Your security practices must reflect that.
• SAST, DAST, SCA, and IAST are essential, but manual testing and experienced judgment catch what tools miss. They are robust security measures.
• AI and regulations are raising the bar. New attack surfaces and tighter compliance timelines mean security is now a business-critical function. It needs new approaches to mitigating security risks, identifying security weaknesses, and maintaining application security.
• Security is everyone’s job. The most resilient teams embed it into engineering, product, and DevOps, not as a blocker, but as a partner.

Security Strategy Objectives: Key Questions You Should Ask Yourself

Robust application security starts with intent. Not with a tool or a framework, but with a goal. Whether you're securing your first SaaS product or extending protection across a growing platform, your objectives will determine how fast and how safely you scale.

Here are questions to ask yourself to get there and identify a clear and precise list of strategy objectives.

1. What business outcomes am I protecting?

Security should reflect what matters most to your company. Are you prioritizing uptime? Customer trust? IP protection? Without a clear answer, you risk spending time and effort on security controls that look good but do little to prevent real damage from security weaknesses.

Start here:

• What’s the worst-case breach scenario for your product (include all critical security issues)?
• Which assets (data, infrastructure, user workflows) are most critical?
• What would downtime or data loss cost you in terms of revenue or reputation?

2. How much risk are you actually comfortable with?

Not all emerging threats and security risks deserve equal attention. You’re balancing delivery deadlines, roadmap priorities, and limited resources. You’ll never eliminate every vulnerability, and that’s okay.

Ask yourself:

• What’s our current risk tolerance based on customer expectations and market positioning?
• Where can automation or guardrails help us reduce exposure without slowing down dev cycles?
• Are there gaps where even basic hygiene (like access control or code reviews) would make a huge impact?

3. Are we building a system that can scale with us?

A good security plan can’t be static; it must adapt. It should evolve as your architecture, team, and customer base grow. That’s hard to do reactively.

Consider:

• Will your current practices hold up if your team doubles or your data triples?
• Are you prepared for audits, certifications, or enterprise client demands?
• Can you prove (not just say) that your product is secure?

4. Who owns security today, and who should?

If security is still “shared responsibility,” and there are no specific authentication mechanisms, roles, and levels of access, it likely means no one is accountable. That’s manageable now, but it won’t scale. As threats become more sophisticated, so should your defenses and your team.

Think of:

• Are you spending more time patching than planning?
• Are security decisions ad hoc or based on a clear framework?
• Are you confident your engineers are equipped to weigh risk trade-offs?

Security doesn’t need to be a full-time job for you. Bring in someone who thinks about security full-time, whether a hire, consultant, or partner.

What Are the Most Common Application Security Threats and Issues?

Successful and liable applications are dynamic, distributed, and deeply integrated, which makes them both powerful and vulnerable. Even well-architected systems can harbor blind spots.

Below, we list the most common security threats that we have observed in security assessments and that you should be aware of (aligned with the OWASP Top 10: 2021).

Broken access control (A01:2021)

Too often, applications rely on the UI to restrict access, rather than validating permissions server-side. Attackers know this and exploit it to access unauthorized data or actions. Even authenticated users shouldn’t be able to access everything, as this could expose various application security risks.

From our experience, the best way of mitigation in this case is to enforce access control checks at every API or action level. Validate permissions based on roles, ownership, and context.

The case:

In 2024, Okta revealed a critical flaw that allowed attackers to bypass authentication entirely, requiring no valid credentials. The issue stemmed from how Okta’s authentication service handled usernames over 52 characters.

Under specific load and failover conditions, cached credential checks failed silently, letting unauthenticated users in (similar to how SQL injection vulnerabilities can be exploited). For a platform trusted to handle identity for thousands of businesses, this wasn’t just a bug but a breach of trust.

Engineering teams can build secure systems, but subtle auth failures like this are rarely caught without someone focused on breaking things before attackers do. Sometimes, bringing in that mindset is the most secure decision you can make. So, consider penetration testing.

We also recommend foundational security measures:

• Enforcing server-side access checks.
• Validating permissions based on roles and context.
• Using proven auth frameworks and patterns.

Cryptographic failures (A02:2021)

Encryption doesn’t help if it’s missing, misused, or inconsistently applied. From exposed credentials to data in transit sent over plain HTTP, these gaps create legal and reputational risk.

The case:

In 2024, Advance Auto Parts reported that attackers spent over 40 days inside their Snowflake environment, exfiltrating sensitive data from more than 2.3 million employees and applicants. The breach wasn’t caused by some obscure zero-day.

It started with a set of compromised credentials and the absence of multi-factor authentication and led to significant security issues. From there, attackers quietly pulled names, SSNs, and government ID numbers without tripping alarms.

This kind of data exposure isn’t about poor architecture. It’s about operational blind spots: missed MFA, insufficient audit trails, unclear ownership of cloud access. And these are the kinds of gaps that grow quietly in teams where everyone’s already stretched thin.

If that sounds familiar, it might be time to bring in pentesting and vulnerability assessment. From our experience, using HTTPS everywhere and data encryption in transit and at rest is also really helpful. Enforce least-privilege access and be explicit about what data is sensitive and treat it accordingly.

Injection attacks: SQL, NoSQL, command (A03:2021)

Injection vulnerabilities occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. The most infamous is cross-site scripting (XSS attacks), but modern apps are also vulnerable to NoSQL and OS command injection. Attackers can gain unauthorized access, extract sensitive data, or even take control of the underlying system.

The case:

In 2024, researchers uncovered an SQL injection flaw in FlyCASS – a system used by airlines to manage TSA’s Known Crewmember access. The vulnerability lets attackers gain admin rights and insert fake crew profiles, effectively bypassing airport security. This wasn’t a theoretical risk. It was a live, critical failure that exposed a national aviation program to unauthorized access.

If that can happen in a system tied to cockpit clearance, it can happen in yours. You don’t need to be building aviation software to feel the impact of a missed input check or weak access logic. And while you can probably catch some of these issues yourself, a dedicated security role or partner could help you avoid malicious code execution, being one unpatched line away from front-page news.

We recommend using parameterized queries and input validation. We also strongly advise building queries by concatenating user inputs. Always sanitize and encode.

Insecure design (A04:2021)

Security can’t be bolted on after the fact. Insecure design means the architecture itself doesn’t account for abuse cases, like trust assumptions, insecure workflows, or missing controls.

No single breach defines this category, but you’ll see its fingerprints on every major incident where the root cause wasn’t code, but concept.

We recommend ensuring that critical components are secured:

• Threat modeling from the beginning.
• Using secure defaults and design patterns.
• Documenting trust boundaries explicitly.
• Reviewing workflows for unintended consequences.

Security misconfiguration (A05:2021)

Default credentials, verbose error messages, overly permissive CORS policies – these are just a few examples. Misconfigurations are low-hanging fruit for attackers and often lead to significant security breaches. They’re easy to exploit and often grant deep access.

We’ve seen everything from open admin panels to exposed debug logs on live systems. These aren’t zero-days. It happens when environments drift, CI/CD templates aren’t hardened, and nobody checks the final state.

To reduce the risk, we recommend configuration checks automation. You can also apply hardened templates and regularly scan environments for drift. Do not forget to secure your CI/CD pipeline as much as your code.

Vulnerable and outdated components (A06:2021)

If you don’t know what’s in your stack, you won’t know when it breaks. Dependencies can introduce critical bugs you didn’t write, and attackers won’t care who did.

We recommend keeping a clear inventory of all components in your stack. Make sure you monitor your dependencies for known vulnerabilities. Apply updates regularly, not just when something breaks, as this is part of maintaining robust security controls . And, avoid using libraries that are no longer maintained or have unclear support.

Identification and authentication failures (A07:2021)

If identity checks are flawed, attackers can sidestep security altogether by taking advantage of weak authentication. This can happen through missing multi-factor authentication, poor password hygiene, or flawed session handling.

The result is often full access to systems that were never meant to be public, leading to data breaches, account takeovers, and long-term trust damage.

The case:

Again, the Okta incident showed how a small authentication flaw can cascade into a serious access control breach. Without validation at every step, authentication isn't trustworthy.

We recommend enforcing multi-factor authentication and using secure password practices across your systems as part of robust security controls. It’s also important to validate sessions with proper expiration and token rotation. Whenever possible, rely on well-tested identity frameworks instead of building your own.

Software and data integrity failures (A08:2021)

When your build, deployment, or update processes aren’t properly secured, attackers can insert malicious changes into your system through trusted channels. This means they don’t need to exploit your app code directly. They just wait for your pipeline to deliver the attack for them.

In our work, we sign software and updates to protect their integrity. We secure build pipelines to prevent tampering during development. We also verify third-party packages before they’re integrated and continuously monitor for unauthorized changes.

Security logging and monitoring failures (A09:2021)

If an application doesn’t log key events (failed logins, permission changes, or unusual activity), there’s no record to trace when something goes wrong. Even if logs exist, without proper alerting, suspicious behavior blends in with normal traffic.

This lack of visibility means attacks can go undetected for days or weeks, delaying response and making damage harder to contain.

We centralize logs so nothing gets missed. We also make sure access, changes, and errors are recorded. We set up alerts to flag unusual behavior as it happens. And we test incident response plans often to make sure they work when needed.

Server-side request forgery (SSRF) (A10:2021)

SSRF happens when an application fetches URLs or resources based on user input, without validating what’s being accessed. This can let attackers reach internal systems or cloud metadata services.

In our approach, we validate and whitelist all outgoing requests to control what the application can reach. We block internal IP addresses to prevent attackers from accessing sensitive internal systems. Internal services are kept isolated from external input, and we review any third-party components that send HTTP requests to ensure they don't introduce new risks.

What You Should Consider in Your Cybersecurity Strategy Based on Your App Type

The nature of your product, how it's built, deployed, and consumed, shapes your attack surface. Your application security program should reflect that.

Below are common types of applications and the risks you need to weigh for each.

Web apps

Web apps are exposed by design. Publicly accessible interfaces, third-party libraries, and browser-based interaction make web applications a frequent target.

Key risks here include injection attacks, broken authentication and session management, insecure deserialization, and client-side vulnerabilities (DOM-based XSS, CSRF. So, focus your strategy on:

• strict input/output validation;
• enforcing HTTPS with HSTS;
• role-based access controls (RBAC);
• strengthen web servers and frameworks;
• implementing robust monitoring for early detection.

Mobile apps

Mobile apps run in untrusted environments (on users' devices). You can’t control the hardware, but you can control how your app behaves on it.

Key risks here are insecure data storage on the device (obviously), weak encryption for data in transit, reverse engineering and code tampering, and inadequate user input validation. Focus your strategy on:

• obfuscating app code and encrypting sensitive data;
• OS-level secure storage (Keychain, Keystore);
• validating SSL/TLS certificates (pinning when needed);
• runtime checks for tampering or rooting.

Cloud applications

Cloud-native apps introduce shared responsibility. Your code runs on someone else's infrastructure. Misunderstanding that boundary leads to trouble.

Key risks here include misconfigured IAM roles and services, publicly exposed storage buckets, insecure CI/CD pipelines, as well as insufficient logging and visibility. So, when thinking about how to develop an application security program, focus on:

• cloud security posture baselines (define and enforce);
• identity federation and conditional access policies;
• infrastructure as code (IaC) templates audits;
• implementing and regularly testing incident response scenarios;
• cloud activity monitoring via centralized logging and SIEM tools.

APIs

APIs are the glue between systems, and often the soft underbelly that attackers target. Unlike frontends, they expose business logic directly.

Key risks here are insecure endpoints and parameter tampering, excessive data exposure, lack of rate limiting and throttling, and improper authentication and authorization. Focus your strategy on

• API gateway with security enforcement;
• proper API security testing;
• versioning and clear schema contracts;
• applying strict rate limits and anomaly detection;
• ensuring every request is authenticated and scoped properly.

Containers

Containers are fast, flexible, and fragile if not isolated and monitored correctly. One misconfigured image can compromise an entire environment.

Key risks in this case include vulnerable base images, privileged containers or misused host volumes, insecure orchestration configs (Kubernetes, Docker Swarm), and lateral movement across pods. Focus your cybersecurity strategy on:

• minimal, trusted base images;
• runtime security policies (e.g., AppArmor, SELinux)
• scanning images during the build and deploy phases;
• workloads segmentation with namespaces and network policies.

Don’t forget hybrid applications

If your application spans multiple types, like a mobile app backed by APIs and deployed to the cloud, you inherit risks from each domain. Your strategy needs to unify them.

When considering how to build strategy for app security, focus on areas like:

• consistent identity and access management;
• centralized logging and alerting;
• end-to-end encryption and data governance;
• security testing embedded in CI/CD pipelines.

What Are the Key Areas of an Application Security Strategy?

Your application security program (strategy) should be as intentional and scalable as your code. Below are the key areas that, from our point of view, are critical to cover. Each one helps you build secure software while supporting your team’s velocity and business goals.

Secure development lifecycle (SDL) as the foundation

Security needs to be present from the first line of code. That doesn’t mean adding extra overhead. It means making smart decisions early, during design reviews, while writing code, and inside your CI/CD workflows.

Threat modeling should be part of your planning, not a separate audit. And if your developers follow clear, secure coding patterns from the start, you’ll have less to fix later.

Making testing a continuous and coherent process

Security testing should feel like a natural part of your delivery process. Integrate it where your team already works, inside the pipeline.

Use static analysis to catch issues in code, dynamic tests to spot problems at runtime, and composition analysis to watch for vulnerable dependencies. Combine automated tools with focused manual testing where logic gets complex.

Key types:

• Static Application Security Testing (SAST) for code analysis.
• Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) for runtime testing.
• Software Composition Analysis (SCA) for open-source risks.
• Manual penetration testing for business logic flaws.

Access control and authentication from day one

Most breaches start with weak authentication or broken access controls. Use strong identity standards like OAuth or OpenID Connect, and be strict about session handling.

Make MFA the default, not the exception. And remember: limiting who can do what in your system is just as important as verifying who they are.

What to implement:

• Role-based access control (RBAC) or attribute-based access control (ABAC).
• Multi-factor authentication across all user types.
• OAuth, OpenID Connect, or SAML for federated identity.
• Secure session management.

Strong vulnerability management

You can’t prevent everything. But you can know what you’re exposed to and act fast. Build a workflow that helps your team detect, prioritize, and patch vulnerabilities quickly. That includes vulnerability scanning tools, clear ownership, and an easy way to decide what gets fixed when.

What to include:

• Regular security scans and code reviews.
• Internal SLA for fixing security vulnerabilities.
• Risk-based prioritization of vulnerabilities.
• Patch management and deployment workflows.
• CVE and advisory monitoring.

Training developers to make secure choices

The best tooling won’t matter if your team doesn’t know what to do with it. Security training shouldn’t be a one-time presentation.

It should be integrated into how your team learns through real code examples, secure defaults in boilerplates, and peer feedback. Help developers understand how attackers think, not just what to patch.

Best practices:

• Run secure coding workshops and hands-on labs.
• Provide just-in-time guidance within IDEs or CI tools.
• Share internal security playbooks and checklists.
• Encourage participation in threat modeling and postmortems.

Security monitoring and incident response

We know from practice that even with the best controls, incidents may happen. The difference is how fast you notice and how well you respond.

Build logging and alerts directly into your apps, not just the infrastructure. Define a clear incident response plan. Review incidents regularly and use what you learn to improve your systems and processes.

What to build in:

• Application-level logging and alerting.
• Anomaly detection and usage pattern monitoring.
• Defined incident response plan (IRP) with clear roles.
• Post-incident reviews to improve systems and processes

Your application security program should help your team move fast and safely. You don’t have to do everything at once. But you should definitely build the protection that’s as scalable as your architecture, and as clear as your product goals.

How to Build an Application Security Strategy in 6 Steps

When considering how to build application security strategy, think of it as a multiplier. It keeps your team moving fast, your product stable, and your customers confident. Of course, there are dozens of nuances, and your own strategy will need customization and adjusting to your specific circumstances.

However, here’s the basic guide on how to get there, step by step.

1. Start with a proper risk assessment

The best practice, from our perspective, is to begin with understanding what’s at stake. Before anything else, take a hard look at what could go wrong and what that would mean for your business.

Not all risks are equal. Where does your app handle sensitive data? What components face the internet? What could an attacker do if they got in?

You don’t need clarity on where your app is most vulnerable and what would hurt the most. Map that against business impact, know where a breach would hurt the most, and prioritize from there. This way, you’ve got your initial threat model.

2. Create security polices

Even small teams need structure. Define:

• How you handle sensitive data and assets.
• Who gets access to what, and how this access must be granted.
• How dependencies are vetted.
• What needs to be encrypted.
• Which tools and libraries are allowed.
• How incidents should be reported, etc.

Keep it lightweight, but enforceable. Without shared expectations, you’re relying on individual judgment, and that’s where consistency breaks down.

As AI-powered tools become more common (IDEs, code assistants, and chatbots), your policies should clearly outline how these are used. When configured well, they help the development team write more secure code and catch issues faster. But without proper controls, they can also expose sensitive data or introduce subtle risks.

3. Build security into your development lifecycle

Don’t wait until code hits staging to think about risk. Add security to design reviews, story definitions, and CI workflows. Embed it in code review checklists. Use your CI/CD pipeline to enforce guardrails automatically.

If your team is using AI-assisted development tools like code-suggestion engines or AI-enabled IDEs, embed review steps to verify their output. These tools can speed up development and surface common issues, but they also introduce the risk of insecure patterns slipping through unnoticed. Treat them as helpful assistants, not decision-makers.

The more you push security upstream, the fewer late-cycle rewrites, and the fewer “we’ll fix that later” tickets you carry into prod.

4. Conduct regular security audits and updates

Security is dynamic. What was safe six months ago might not be today. Your threat surface changes as you scale, refactor, and integrate with other platforms.

So, make time to review roles, dependencies, and exposed services. Schedule it like tech debt cleanup. From what we saw on our project, it is often what separates the teams that recover quickly from those that don’t.

Pro tip:

Automated tools are great at surfacing known issues quickly and consistently. For example, we use static code analysis tools to catch bugs at commit time, dynamic testing to scan running applications, and software composition analysis to flag vulnerable dependencies. These tools give you coverage that your code reviews can’t.

AI-enhanced versions of these tools are already improving scan accuracy and reducing noise. When integrated into dev workflows, they can simplify secure coding and help maintain coverage across fast-moving projects. Just make sure they’re vetted and aligned with your broader risk model.

Modern tools can flag known issues, insecure coding patterns, and dangerous behavior in real time, but they won’t catch everything. Pair them with targeted penetration testing to uncover logic flaws, edge cases, and real-world exploit paths your scanners will miss.

Together, they create a feedback loop that strengthens your system and security posture as well as improves your assumptions.

6. Conduct regular security training for your team

Everyone in your team needs a security context. Give your team access to hands-on training that fits their stack and threat model. Share internal examples. Run short postmortems when things go wrong and conduct security awareness training.

7. Prepare an incident management plan

Incidents are inevitable. What matters is how your team handles them.

Have a clear plan. Know who’s on point, how you’ll communicate, what gets logged, and what gets disclosed. A well-handled incident can build more trust than never having one at all. Also, a clear, rehearsed plan reduces panic and recovery time.

Tools to Consider

Different app security tools are designed for different stages of the application lifecycle. When thinking about how to create application security strategy, consider combining several approaches to get full visibility into risk.

Here’s a breakdown of key categories worth considering.

Static application security testing (SAST)

SAST tools analyze your source code or bytecode without executing it. They’re ideal for catching issues early, before the app runs. Common findings include insecure coding patterns, hardcoded secrets, and risky logic flaws.

In our experience, SAST is most useful when it's integrated directly into your pipeline and enforced through quality gates, not as a one-off scan. These tools work best during development or in CI.

Examples include SonarQube, Checkmarx, Qwiet AI, Fortify, Semgrep Code, Snyk Code,  etc. Choose based on your security needs and budget.

Dynamic application security testing (DAST)

DAST security takes the opposite approach. It tests running applications from the outside, mimicking how attackers might interact with them. It’s good at spotting issues like XSS, broken authentication, or misconfigurations that static analysis won’t catch.

DAST is best used in staging environments where the app behaves like production. Tools to look at include OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite, and Acunetix.

It’s also worth noting that DAST complements SAST; it doesn’t replace it.

Interactive application security testing (IAST)

IAST combines elements of both SAST and DAST. It observes code while the app runs in test environments and gives high-accuracy results with fewer false positives.

IAST works well during QA cycles where tests already exist. Tools like Contrast Security and Seeker by Synopsys are common here.

Runtime application self-protection (RASP)

While most tools detect issues during development or testing, RASP defends apps during production. It integrates with the app itself and monitors behavior at runtime, blocking attacks as they happen.

This can be a powerful layer for high-value applications that need real-time safeguards. Tools in this space include Signal Sciences and Imperva RASP.

RASP isn’t a replacement for testing, but it adds a reactive layer where prevention alone isn’t enough.

Software composition analysis (SCA)

Modern apps depend heavily on open-source libraries, and that comes with licensing and security risks. SCA tools scan your dependencies and alert you when you’re pulling in known vulnerabilities or non-compliant packages.

Leading options include Snyk, WhiteSource, and GitHub’s Dependabot. These are especially helpful when wired into your repo and trigger on PRs. If you’ve ever had to hotfix a production bug caused by a third-party package, you know the value of catching these early.

Mobile app security testing (MAST)

Mobile apps face unique threats, like insecure storage, excessive permissions, or weak session handling. MAST tools are designed to test mobile-specific risks across both Android and iOS.

Notable examples include MobSF Framework, NowSecure, AppSweep, and Zimperium. These tools often integrate with mobile CI/CD workflows and provide platform-specific insights. If your team is shipping mobile apps, this layer should be mandatory.

Cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP)

This is a unified platform for securing cloud applications throughout their lifecycle, addressing various cyber threats. It includes secure containers, infrastructure-as-code, and cloud configurations. CNAPP tools are built to integrate with CI/CD and continuously scan your environment for misconfigurations and exposed secrets.

Look into tools like Palo Alto Prisma Cloud, Wiz, or Aqua Security. They’re especially useful for engineering teams deploying across multiple cloud services with limited centralized security oversight.

Build Security That Scales with You

You already know that a security strategy is aligning protection with how your team ships software and how your product creates value. You can stitch things together in-house for a while. But at some point, someone has to own the risk model, the implementation depth, and the long game.

That’s where we come in.

We’ve worked with growing product teams at exactly your stage: where security is important, but not yet formalized. Where you’re balancing roadmap velocity with customer trust, and where the cost of slowing down feels just as risky as the threat itself.

Together, we can define your strategy, choose the right tools, run a threat model, or just have a clear, opinionated conversation about where your blind spots might be. We’re happy to step in and help you build a security foundation that won’t crack as you scale.

Wrapping Up: What’s Next?

Building an effective app cybersecurity strategy starts with clarity about the risks and about how those risks intersect with your product, architecture, and business goals.

The way we build software is evolving, and so are the threats. The best teams are embedding security into everything: planning, design, deployment, and even observability. Expect security reviews to show up in sprint planning as often as in staging.

AI creates new risks and new attack surfaces

As large language models (LLMs) and generative AI make their way into production systems, they’re introducing a fresh layer of complexity and risk. Attacks like prompt injection, where users manipulate AI outputs by embedding malicious instructions in seemingly harmless text, are no longer theoretical.

In 2023, Bing Chat was shown to be vulnerable to prompt injections that caused it to reveal internal instructions and misbehave. In 2024, similar vulnerabilities were exploited in AI-powered support bots and content moderation tools, where attackers bypassed filtering by hiding payloads in context that the model failed to sanitize.

These issues fall outside the scope of traditional AppSec tools like SAST or DAST. To detect and mitigate them, you need threat modeling AI-specific workflows, fine-tune model behavior with security in mind, and combine input/output validation with strong access controls. If you're integrating LLMs, it's worth involving someone who understands both how the model works and how it can be misused.

Compliance is becoming strategic

Security is becoming a boardroom discussion. New regulations are raising the bar on accountability and transparency.

The EU Cyber Resilience Act, for example, mandates that software vendors ensure secure-by-design products and disclose vulnerabilities for critical infrastructure. In the U.S., the SEC’s cybersecurity disclosure rule now requires publicly traded companies to report material cyber incidents within four days. This timeline forces engineering, legal, and leadership to work in sync.

For mid-sized companies, this shift means customers and investors are starting to ask tougher questions. They want to see your security posture, not just hear that you “take it seriously.” Teams that build security into their process will increasingly use it as a differentiator, especially in regulated markets like fintech, healthtech, and enterprise tools.

Security gets collaborative

As threat surfaces expand and deployment cycles accelerate, forward-looking teams are embedding security ownership across disciplines to mitigate potential security breaches.

We’ve seen this firsthand. In one project, an engineering team introduced security champions within each squad. They weren’t AppSec pros, but they acted as liaisons, driving adoption of best practices and catching risky decisions early. It created a cultural shift: security moved from blocker to enabler.

And it’s not just engineering. Product managers are now participating in threat modeling. DevOps teams are enforcing policies through infrastructure as code. Even design teams are starting to ask, “How could this be abused?”

Security is becoming everyone’s job in a practical, distributed way that aligns with how modern teams build software.

FAQ

1. What is an application security strategy?

   An application security strategy is a structured framework that defines how security is embedded across the entire software development lifecycle, ensuring appropriate security measures are taken . It covers design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance. It establishes clear ownership, risk prioritization, and technical controls to prevent, detect, and respond to vulnerabilities in both code and infrastructure.

   A well-formed plan ensures that your web application security testing strategy or mobile application security testing strategy is not an isolated checklist, but an integrated part of a broader, scalable security posture. It aligns your security efforts with your architecture, delivery model, and compliance requirements.

2. What are the three phases of application security?

   Application security typically moves through three phases: development (secure design and coding), testing (security testing and evaluation), and maintenance (ongoing monitoring and updates). All with security considerations in mind.

   It starts during design and development, where teams establish secure coding practices and identify potential threats early. Next comes testing and validation. This is where automated tools and manual reviews are used to detect vulnerabilities and protect sensitive data before code reaches production. 

   Finally, there's ongoing monitoring and response, which also ensures data protection, and that any security incidents are caught quickly and handled effectively. A well-rounded strategy includes all three phases, adapted to the nature of the application and the risks it faces.

3. What are the differences between static and dynamic application security testing?

   Static application security testing (SAST) scans your codebase without running the application, making it ideal for identifying issues early in development. Dynamic app security testing (DAST), on the other hand, analyzes applications in a running state, detecting vulnerabilities that only appear during execution. SAST helps catch logic flaws and insecure coding patterns, while DAST uncovers real-world threats like injection attacks or misconfigurations. 

   Both are essential for a complete security posture, and security teams combine them to build a reliable app cybersecurity strategy.