Leveraging ASPM for Maximum Impact: A Security Leader’s Guide

For assessing and reporting on the risks associated with your applications, you know you need Application Security Posture Management (ASPM). However, this quickly evolving space has many variables that security leaders may not realize. Here’s how you can elevate your security strategy by optimizing ASPM tools in a way that minimizes risks, enhances operational efficiency, and builds a robust security-aware culture in your organization. 

Understanding Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) in Context 

Application Security Posture Management is a holistic approach to security signal analysis that helps organizations optimize risk reduction and improve the security of their applications. The term was coined in the May 2023 Gartner Innovation Insight for Application Security Posture Management report by Dale Gartner, Dionisio Zumerle, and Manjunath Bhat. 

ASPM exists to solve the challenges created through the increasing complexity of applications and cloud environments. It involves continuous assessment and management of the security signals to help teams quickly identify and resolve application security (AppSec) issues. To be clear, ASPM is not the be-all-end-all of security posture management, which I’ll explain further next. 

The A, B, C, D of Security Posture Management 

As a CISO, here’s how I see ASPM in the context of your overall risk and security posture: The A, B, C, D of Security Posture Management. 

1. Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) - ASPM focuses on assessing the risks associated with applications. Understanding application vulnerabilities in context is crucial as they can significantly impact the overall security of an organization. 

2. Business Security Posture Management (BSPM) - BSPM is essential for ensuring compliance with critical business frameworks such as PCI, HIPAA, SOC 2, ISO, and NIST. Compliance is not just about adhering to regulations; it's about maintaining business integrity and trust. 

3. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) - With the shift towards cloud-based infrastructures, CSPM has become indispensable. It identifies risks related to cloud configurations, infrastructures, and workloads. Securing cloud environments is crucial in the modern digital landscape to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches. 

4. Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) - DSPM addresses the management of data security risks. Protecting data is paramount in preventing breaches and ensuring privacy. This component stresses the importance of robust data security practices to safeguard sensitive information from both internal and external threats. 

ASPM is just a facet of managing your entire security portfolio, but the complexity of applications today makes gaining visibility in this arena greatly context dependent. 

Optimizing ASPM for Max Visibility 

For ASPM to have the greatest impact, security leaders need to be thinking in terms of context that’s actionable across departments. An optimized solution offers a risk management dashboard that consolidates scattered data and presents a comprehensive understanding of the risk's significance to the business. This requires going beyond just identifying vulnerabilities and isolated data, and instead providing a comprehensive view of the risk from code to cloud (especially if you use a solution that combines ASPM and CSPM).  

This view enables you to answer critical questions, such as, “What is at risk? What poses the greatest risk? Which actions will have the most significant impact?” 

By aligning actions with business goals, these answers not only improve security measures but also minimize risk across applications with minimal effort. Leading ASPM solutions guide you directly to the most critical actions, allowing you to simply "pull the trigger" or "release the arrow," metaphorically speaking. 

A key feature of an optimized ASPM solution is that it's an open ecosystem approach, capable of integrating findings from a variety of security tools, regardless of the vendor. This flexibility allows for a risk management strategy that doesn’t limit itself to data from a single set of tools. By leveraging an open ecosystem, ASPM platforms can offer a holistic view of risks, enhancing the ability to make informed decisions that align with business objectives. 

Keep in mind: ASPM is only as good as the information your AppSec tools are feeding it. If your findings are riddled with false positives, these will impact the analysis of your ASPM solution.

Veracode AppSec tools are engineered to provide you with actionable and accurate findings. “We evaluated the accuracy of our dynamic scans, and the false-positive rate was probably 3% [on the Veracode Platform] compared to 35% to 40% [with our legacy DAST tool],” said a customer in our recent case study. 

Building Automations and Security-Aware Culture  

The success of ASPM is not solely dependent on technology but also on the people within the organization and the use of automations that make their lives easier. Integrating continuous and real-time AppSec tools like Static Analysis or Software Composition Analysis (SCA) directly into the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) encourages a proactive approach to security. It also ensures ongoing visibility into the application's security posture.  

Additionally, leveraging AI for remediation aids in efficiently triaging the issues your ASPM tools point out, significantly reducing the manual burden on developers. You can also conduct regular training sessions and engage developers with hands-on secure coding education, ensuring that security becomes a fundamental aspect of the organizational ethos. 

Dive Deeper Into Optimized ASPM 

Leveraging ASPM for maximum impact requires a multifaceted approach that encompasses understanding the tools, optimizing their use, and fostering a culture of security awareness. As security leaders, the responsibility to integrate these elements into a cohesive strategy that protects against current and emerging threats is paramount. Discover more about this in our whitepaper: Security and Application Teams Are Buried; It’s Time to Dig Them Out.