How ASPM boosts visibility to manage application risk

How often are you surprised by a threat or vulnerability from a software asset you never knew existed? 

For many companies, the answer is, “More often than we’d like.” This is because you can’t protect what you can’t see. Full visibility across the entire software supply chain is a must for AppSec teams, but this comprehensive view across the attack surface can be elusive. 

In this post, we'll discuss the issues facing teams aiming to secure their proprietary applications and the solutions and practices that can help.  

The DevSecOps dilemma: Balancing agility and risk management 

As applications become more complex and AI-fueled developers step on the gas, the risk of more severe security events like the dreaded zero-day is shooting up. That’s why AppSec teams always seem to be the ones putting the brakes on development, delaying time to market.

What may seem like inherent conflicts within DevSecOps are driven by several factors:

• Lack of visibility: One of the big problems growing AppSec programs face is a lack of insight into the components of every software asset from development to runtime, preventing an end-to-end view of the application estate.

• Conflicting priorities: AppSec teams aim to reduce risk, while developers strive for speed. Not only are goals out of sync, but the two functions are often unable to communicate or collaborate well. Meanwhile, cost and effort increase, and frustration builds. The result is a slower time to market and higher development costs for the business. Not ideal. 

• Proliferation of security tools: Developers face an ever-expanding array of scanning tools, many of which are built without them in mind and run in separate silos at different stages of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Are developers really using any of them? And if they are, can you get a full picture of the asset estate from this fragmented landscape?

• Lack of insight: Many AppSec teams only report on the raw numbers of vulnerabilities and severity but have no way of communicating the effectiveness of the security program, highlighting the issues that demand remediation, and placing this data inside developers’ workflows so they can quickly fix critical issues.

ASPM: A new breed of security management

Visibility across applications has a new champion: a critical and growing practice called application security posture management (ASPM). ASPM is a new breed of security tooling designed to manage and scale application security programs.

ASPM tools can continuously manage application risk by collecting, analyzing, and prioritizing security issues across the SDLC. They create a structured inventory of the assets involved in building, deploying, and running applications. Assets are enriched with application and development context and highlighted issues, including critical information on:

• Asset ownership

• Business criticality

• Technologies used

• Deployment status

• Runtime configuration

• Security testing results and findings

This comprehensive shared view provides the context needed to analyze risk from the findings of application security testing (AST) tools. Once they understand risk, AppSec teams can drive better experiences by ensuring developers are only asked to take action on security issues that measurably reduce risk. AppSec teams can also share results with CISOs and other business leaders, expressed in terms that matter to them instead of just vulnerabilities found and fixed.

Snyk AppRisk empowers developers

Snyk AppRisk is a developer-first ASPM solution for AppSec teams wanting to shift left. When we designed AppRisk, our goals were simple: empower developers, enable productivity, improve visibility, and manage and scale effectively. With Snyk’s help, closing gaps in visibility doesn't have to be overwhelming or difficult. 

Many emerging ASPM tools rely on third-party integrations or legacy AST tools with limited developer adoption. Unfortunately, these fail to provide a broad and accurate understanding of apps that let developers effectively prioritize and remediate. 

Snyk AppRisk solution integrates seamlessly with Snyk's security-trusted and developer-friendly AST tools to offer a sophisticated and holistic view of apps — from development to runtime — and their associated risks. AppSec teams can work closely with developers to eliminate the greatest threats to the business.

The bonus? Our AppRisk solution lists all relevant assets, whether they’re protected by Snyk’s AST tools or other supported third-party security controls. 

The promise of visibility and context

The goal of ASPM is to gain a clear, shared understanding of all enterprise applications from development to the cloud, including the security controls in place (or not) and the teams responsible for those app components. 

Gartner predicts that over 40% of organizations developing their own applications will adopt ASPM by 2026 to help them quickly find and fix security issues and meet strict standards.

Combining the available data and analysis provides the truest possible measure of risk, business context, and program effectiveness. It fosters a better understanding of the organization’s software assets among AppSec teams, developers, and business leaders, serving as a cornerstone for more efficient risk assessment and management.

Smoother DevSecOps

Snyk AppRisk improves the development process and enables DevSecOps through:

• A holistic view of each application: Offers better visibility plus a more comprehensive understanding of an application's security posture

• Risk-based prioritization: Provides a deeper understanding of how vulnerabilities impact applications, improving triage and remediation

• Better collaboration between developers and security: Works within developers’ preferred tooling and workflows, breaks down silos, provides a common language, and integrates security early in the development process

• Contextual enforcement of AppSec policies and controls: Ensures automated monitoring and consistent enforcement of AppSec policies and controls tailored to the application.

A key component of collaboration

We’re all trying to shift left, but how about starting left? 

When given the right security tools built specifically for them, developers can and will handle security issues earlier, faster, and more effectively. When AppSec teams, developers, and business leaders all understand the applications and their business importance, this shared understanding is the foundation not only for evaluating risk but also for collaboration — the key to business success.

Busy developers are the front line of security, as they are the ones who must ultimately change code to fix vulnerabilities. But their success is also based on products’ speed to market. Snyk’s AST feeds ASPM with security analysis and application data, highlighting what developers must pay attention to, eliminating noise, and creating the best developer experience. The result is a successful, scalable developer security program.

Empower developers and reduce risk

A comprehensive, ASPM-style approach to security with Snyk AppRisk will help close visibility gaps and empower AppSec with the information they need to understand and manage business problems and potential risks. To learn more about ASPM, read the Snyk and Accenture whitepaper Empower Developers, Reduce Risk: How ASPM Unlocks DevSecOps

You can also book a Snyk AppRisk demo to see our developer-first ASPM solution in action.