With the ubiquity of web and cloud-based software applications, security hackers are continuously capitalizing on software application security flaws to steal customer information, expose sensitive customer records and, ultimately, hurt a business’ reputation. In response to this trend, security testing solutions have been seeing a steady rise in demand. In a recent competitive analysis, ABI Research anticipates the market for this segment to grow to $6.9 billion by 2020.
Traditionally, security audits and quality assurance testing happen toward the end of the development cycle, by which point most security issues are expensive to fix and developers would prefer to focus on releasing the features in a timely fashion, rather than re-coding problem areas. The changing threat landscape and increasing frequency of application attacks, however, is forcing security-focused organizations to more adequately address web application security through secure software development. As such, application security testing is becoming crucial for organizations to adhere to compliance regulations, while at the same time defending themselves from security attacks, said ABI Research.
ABI Research notes that the industry recognizes Static Application Security Testing, or white-box testing, as one of the most effective ways to eliminate software flaws. By solving the problem at the code level, static testing reduces the number of security-related design and coding defects, added the market research firm.
Monolina Sen, Senior Analyst at ABI Research
With companies always aiming to shorten product cycles, app security is usually among the first add-on to be cut. Implementing a robust web application security practice offers an incomparable advantage in allowing development teams to identify known security exposures before potential hackers through defective code detections, patch checks and comprehensive evaluations of user authentication services.
