It’s a story you’ve heard before, and maybe even lived: Your AppSec program is supposed to protect your business, but in practice, it’s bogged down by inefficiencies. You’ve got tool sprawl—a stand-alone platform for static analysis (SAST), another for dynamic analysis (DAST), and others for secrets detection, CI/CD scanning, and cloud configurations that don’t integrate. Onboarding new applications can take months. And even after jumping through the hoops, you’re still staring at a fragmented risk picture, riddled with gaps.
In the fast-moving world of software development, keeping up can feel like sprinting on a treadmill that never stops getting steeper. And with every incline—be it AI-powered tooling, containerized architectures, or the growing complexity of the attack surface—the job of securing applications becomes at best more daunting and at worst it spirals into AppSec chaos.
AppSec, as it stands in many organizations, feels like playing a mismatched game of Tetris: you’re too busy scrambling to make things fit to see the bigger picture. DevSecOps and “shifting left” promised relief, but for many, the result has been more friction and fatigue.
But what if it didn’t have to be this way?
Having spent over a decade navigating the twists and turns of the AppSec industry, I’ve learned one unassailable truth: change is the only constant. Gone are the days when a security consultant could wave a magic wand over an annual static analysis report and call it a day. Today, we’re wrestling with container provenance, integrity of build pipelines, shadow development, managing post-commit hooks, secrets, and more—and all of which needs to feed into a coherent strategy to manage risk. Yet, for most organizations, this strategy is less about opportunities and more about working around limitations.
Here’s a thought: don’t resign from your AppSec program. Reset it.
Resetting Your AppSec Program
Resetting your AppSec program starts with a shift in mindset: stop working around limitations and start focusing on opportunities and the needs of your organization.
This is where Cycode comes into play, with its Complete ASPM (Application Security Posture Management) approach to modernize application security. What struck me the first time I saw Cycode in action wasn’t just what it did—but how fast it did it.
Here’s what resetting looks like:
1. Onboard in Minutes–Not Months
In too many organizations, onboarding new applications to the AppSec program takes three, six, or even nine months—just to get a baseline scan. And that is with a mandate from the CISO. With Cycode, it starts in a matter of minutes. Think about what that means for agility: entire portfolios of applications, quickly under management. Security teams can stop playing catch-up and start focusing on what matters.
2. Unified Visibility Across the Ecosystem
Imagine being able to see every piece of your application’s security puzzle in one place. With Cycode, you don’t just get a list of static vulnerabilities or third-party dynamic risks—you see how they connect. From URLs and Kubernetes ingress controllers to containers, build workflows, protected branches, commits, and the developers behind them, Cycode ties it all together.
This isn’t just a technical marvel; it’s a strategic advantage. For example, if you’re trying to remediate a critical vulnerability, you may no longer need to go hunting for the right owner. Cycode surfaces that information automatically, saving you time and frustration.
3. Future-Proof Insights
Want to know what AI technologies are embedded across your codebases? Or maybe you need to track whether an application that was deployed is the same code that was actually analyzed by the scanners. These capabilities, which once seemed like moonshots, are standard capabilities inside the Cycode Platform.
And as the threat landscape evolves—whether through AI-driven attacks or new vectors of supply chain compromise—Cycode is positioned to grow with you, not against you.
Why 2025 is the Year to Reset
As we look toward 2025, the pace of software delivery is only accelerating. Developers are under pressure to release faster, security teams are stretched thin, and the stakes for a single misstep are only getting higher. It’s no wonder so many teams are burning out.
But there’s an antidote to this exhaustion: smarter systems that actually make life easier. With Cycode, AppSec programs can stop being a source of friction and start becoming a source of confidence. Faster onboarding. Seamless integration. Unified visibility. These aren’t just features—they’re game-changers.
Peace of Mind for AppSec
Having built AppSec programs for large organizations across many industries, I’ve seen firsthand how even the best-intentioned teams can feel overwhelmed by the weight of their own tools. Cycode offers peace of mind—a chance to reset, recalibrate, and move forward with clarity.
2025 is the year to stop running in place and start seeing how far your AppSec program can go. Let’s make it a team sport again. With Cycode, you’ll be surprised at what’s possible.
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Brad Smith is part of the Cycode Customer Experience Team ensuring customers get maximum value of their investments in Application Security and are able to achieve their business objectives. Once a penetration testing engineer, he has spent the past decade consulting on Application Security Testing Programs for Fortune 1000 companies.
