The application layer continues to be the most attacked and hardest to defend in the enterprise software stack. With the proliferation of tools aimed at preventing an attack, it’s no wonder the application security testing market is valued at US 4.48 billion. Forrester’s market taxonomy breaks up the application security testing tools market into two main categories: security scanning tools and runtime protection tools.

Web vulnerability scanners crawl through the pages of web applications to detect security vulnerabilities, malware, and logical flaws. They do this by generating malicious inputs and evaluating an application’s responses. Often referred to as dynamic application security testing (DAST), web vulnerability scanners are a type of black-box testing; they perform functional testing only and don't scan an application’s source code.

Free and open source software (FOSS) components have become the basic building blocks of our software products, helping today’s developers build and ship innovative products faster than ever before. Many developers tend to forget that while open source licenses are free, they still come with a set of terms and conditions that users must abide by.

No one wants to be the next Equifax. Just thinking about their company’s name being in a headline along with the words “security breach” is enough to keep CISOs up at night. Much like Fight Club, however, the first rule of data breaches is: You do not talk about security breaches...unless you’re mandated by notification laws like GDPR. Even though organizations don’t reveal much publicly, their concern is reflected in the amount of money spent to prevent cyber attacks.