3 ways AppSec modernization is a game-changer for financial services

Today’s established financial services companies face high pressure from their competition. Many of them find that they must provide an innovative, customized customer experience (CX) or lose out to FinTech disruptors who are already doing CX well. As a result, these businesses are prioritizing innovative, feature-rich applications and adopting the latest and greatest in software development to speed up release cycles and increase productivity. 

However, as FinServ companies’ app development becomes more high-speed and complex, their application security teams simply cannot keep up. The growth in development and security is disproportionate in many of these companies. Developers use modernized practices while security continues to use the same approaches they did five to 10 years ago. 

However, missing out on security can come at a high cost for FinServ companies, as many compliance regulations require AppSec to keep pace with development. Meeting compliance is a significant competitive edge — especially in such a highly regulated industry. Software supply chains are increasingly becoming the “way in” for attackers as well, with our 2023 Open Source Security report uncovering that 87% of respondents were impacted by one or more supply chain security issues. 

With all these factors in play, today’s FinServ organizations must evaluate their existing application security controls and ensure they are modern enough to support fast-paced development practices. Otherwise, applying their outdated security controls to today’s development processes could be like putting a bullet train on a track built in the 1800s. The cast-iron rails would crack under the pressure of the speed and force of the modern locomotive.

But what does it look like when security keeps pace with development? Let’s dive into some of the hallmarks of a modernized AppSec program and how they positively impact software development and, ultimately, the business’s bottom line.

Modernized AppSec enables developer adoption

The key to a successful application security program is a shift left approach, ensuring developers build secure software from the start. But if your existing security controls aren’t straightforward and painless enough for developers to use in their daily workflows, they probably won’t get used. Let’s face it: Developers are smart people, and if an extra step seems annoying or unnecessary, they will find a way to skip it. If they continue to go around controls, the resulting application will contain significant security issues, leaving your team no choice but to work through a laundry list of vulnerabilities late in the pipeline, possibly even delaying deployment.

Modern AppSec approaches prioritize compatibility with today’s development environments, empowering developers to find and fix vulnerabilities with minimal context shifts or extra steps. Some tools integrate straight into the developers’ workflows, enabling them to test their own code from within their integrated development environments (IDEs).

Modernized AppSec matches developer speed at scale

Modernized application security practices also enable security to match the speed of development. Developers in FinServ have tight deadlines to meet as their organizations race to release features that will satisfy pressing customer demands. So, these developers often leverage technology to expedite their daily workflows, such as AI coding assistants and third-party components. 

Modernized AppSec can keep pace with these newer technologies with fast scan times and high accuracy. For example, Snyk Code can match the speed at which developers commit GenAI code to the repositories by checking each new line of code against the entire application and offering one-click remediation options — all within seconds.

Modernized AppSec better aligns with a variety of tech stacks

When you modernize your AppSec, you also prepare your organization for any tech stack updates — now and in the future. When an enterprise has several development teams, each team will likely use a different combination of tools. So, the security team must roll out consistent processes that work seamlessly with multiple cloud providers, repositories, code line interfaces (CLIs), etc. 

Adapting older security controls to this wide range of development tools can be a headache. When new technology is introduced into the organization, the security team must manually tune the controls to work with the new tools. 

On the other hand, modernized application security can quickly adapt to each team’s unique pipeline. It means that the security team can seamlessly plug into existing development pipelines and prepare for any additions to the organization’s tech stack during future growth.

Learn more about optimizing AppSec in financial services

As your business releases cutting-edge software faster and faster, adopting application security practices and technologies that will keep up is essential. To learn more about aligning your AppSec program with the speed of today’s development, check out our guide to Optimizing AppSec in the Financial Services Sector.