In 2011 when IBM’s Watson supercomputer went up against ‘Jeopardy’ icon Ken Jennings, the world watched as a battle of man vs. machine concluded in an impressive win for Watson. It wasn’t simply remarkable that Watson could complete calculations and source documents quickly; the real feat was the brainpower it took to create fine-tuned software with the ability to comprehend questions contextually and think like a human.

By now, most are familiar with the concept of DevSecOps. With DevSecOps, application security (AppSec) is moved to the beginning of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). By scanning earlier in the SDLC, you are able to find and fix flaws earlier. This can result in significant time and cost savings. Most organizations understand the importance of static analysis, which scans for flaws during development, but dynamic application security testing (DAST) is just as important.

We recently partnered with Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) to survey software development and security professionals about modern application development and how applications are tested for security. The soon-to-be-announced survey found that 53% of organizations provide security training for developers less than once a year, which is woefully inadequate for the rapid pace of change in software development.

Your stakeholders have signed off on an application security program, you’ve selected a vendor … but now what? There is no detailed handbook or instruction manual for getting started because every organization is different. You need to formulate your own plan to make sure the program meets the individual needs of your organization.

If there’s one thing you need to value as you move through your career as a modern software developer, it’s the importance of security. With application layers increasing and the shift left movement bringing security into the picture earlier on the development process, security should be top of mind for every developer working to write and compile successful code.

We know firsthand how critical it is for developers and security professionals to have a great working relationship. That extends beyond simply communicating well; for your DevSecOps program to come together so that you can secure your applications, you need to break down silos and improve security knowledge across the board.

Software development and delivery is an ever-changing landscape. Writing software was once an art form all its own, where you could write and deploy machine code with singleness of purpose and no concern for things like connecting to other computers. But as the world and the variety of systems that software supports became more complex, so did the ecosystem supporting software development.