With the speed of digital transformation accelerating, organizations recognize the importance of a robust application security (AppSec) monitoring process. Application security testing is a proactive solution that detects, resolves and prevents security vulnerabilities throughout the development process, from application planning to production use. Security is "shifting left,” essential to the development and testing process by addressing threats early.

To ensure the effectiveness of AppSec, developing application security metrics and KPIs for CISOs and security analysts. Access to real-time data intelligence enables monitoring technologies, methods, and managing processes, ensuring the organization is equipped to meet security standards. 

This emphasis on security measures is more crucial than ever, with over 80% of cybersecurity professionals attributing the growth in cyberattacks to malicious actors' increasing use of generative AI. Utilizing reliable application security testing software enables businesses to avoid these evolving threats. This underscores the importance of understanding application security metrics in protecting against risks.

Understanding Application Security Metrics

Application security testing metrics enable businesses to assess their security posture, detect vulnerabilities, and make informed decisions. Such metrics provide insight into what's working and what's not, ensuring your team's performance. 
 

AppSec metrics help you:

• Identify Weaknesses: Monitor metrics to see where the security program excels and where it needs to improve.
• Measure Efficiency: Determine how effectively your security measures perform and whether they grow more effectively over time.
• Triage Vulnerabilities: Analyze how long it takes security professionals to identify vulnerabilities and uncover opportunities to improve operations.
• Manage Risk: Use metrics to effectively detect and manage risks.
• Meet Compliance Standards: Utilize metrics to determine whether you meet industry standards and compliance needs.

Type of Metrics

Vulnerability Metrics

Vulnerability metrics are crucial for measuring the performance of a vulnerability management strategy. They assess the status of your remediation approach and patching effectiveness. 
 

• Number of Vulnerabilities and Severity: This is critical for determining the current risk. It tracks the vulnerabilities in all applications and categorizes them by severity level (critical, high, medium, low). 
• Vulnerability Reopen Rate: This indicates how frequently previously addressed vulnerabilities reappear. A high reopening rate could signify inadequate solutions or mishandling of the remediation process. 
• Time to Remediation: It represents the average time a security team takes to fix identified vulnerabilities. You must establish a target time for preparing fixes and resolving vulnerabilities based on your vulnerability appetite. 

Incident Metrics

Incident metrics are quantifiable measurements used to monitor the incident response process. Accurately tracking these metrics will assist DevSecOps teams in assessing their performance and whether their reactions to unplanned outages are improving or worsening. 
 

Here are five crucial timestamps that enable teams to measure the appropriate incident data. 

• First product effect (start time): When a service degrades, or metrics deviate from the normal behavior.
• Time to detection (impact identified): when the operator becomes aware of the situation.
• Time to respond (response started): When the operator begins to address the issue.
• Time to mitigate (impact prevented): When the product's effect is no longer significant. The system might remain affected in a certain way.
• Time to recovery (end time): When the system has completely recovered and runs normally. 

Compliance Metrics

These metrics assess how effectively an application adheres to specified security standards and regulations imposed by industry groups, governments, or internal policies. 
 

• Compliance with Industry Regulations: This tracks how an organization adheres with security frameworks (like ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, GDPR).
• Audit Success Rate: This impacts the organization's adherence to its compliance standards by evaluating the success rate of internal and external security audits. 
• Regulatory Breach Incidents: This monitors incidents in which noncompliance leads to regulatory violations, helping teams identify areas for improvement and prevent legal ramifications.
   

Analyzing an organization's security posture by including vulnerability metrics to disclose the efficacy of application security testing encourages prioritization and improvement. Incident metrics evaluate incident management efficiency using security testing software and response strategies. Compliance metrics demonstrate the alignment of security practices with legal standards.
 

Collectively, these metrics integrate with tools for monitoring application security performance to provide a complete overview of an organization's security posture.

Best Practices for Application Security Testing

1. Embed Security Testing in the SDLC: Security testing should be built into the software development lifecycle (SDLC) from design through deployment. This proactive approach can help to discover & mitigate security vulnerabilities on time and thus reduce its risks of security breach.
2. Use a Combination of Testing Techniques: Employ a mix of SAST, DAST, IAST, and SCA to provide comprehensive security testing. Each technique offers unique insights, and their combined use ensures a thorough evaluation of the application’s security posture.
3. Test Early and Often: Security testing should be at the top of mind for both  your development teams and your security teams as part of a continuous integration. This practice saves you of the pain in finding security vulnerabilities too late, and ensures prevention through minimizing (potential) impact.
4. Take advantage of Automatic Testing Tools: Automatic tools for testing are used to save time, as well as to improve the comprehensiveness of testing. Automation helps streamline the process of identifying security vulnerabilities, which means that security teams can spend more time working on higher order issues.
5. Security Testing: Regularly test Your Application for Common security threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS) and buffer overflow vulnerabilities. This keeps the security posture of organizations healthy as well which ensures these vulnerabilities are addressed soon enough.

Best practices orientated above are the pointers which organizations should consider while shaping their application security testing processes to make sure that their applications are secure and robust against any threats.

Tools for Measuring Application Security Effectiveness

There are a few application security testing tools for collecting AppSec metrics. Some of the most prevalent solutions include: 

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) 

Improve application security by testing code with SAST tools, which analyze source code, byte code, and binaries for security vulnerabilities, during the early stages of the SDLC. SAST tools can be integrated directly into IDEs and CI/CD pipelines and enable developers to quickly identify vulnerabilities in source code during development. 

Software Composition Analysis (SCA)

SCA protects the applications from vulnerabilities in open-source software components. It uses a constantly refreshed database to identify vulnerabilities introduced by such components. 

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

DAST reduces the risk of costly data breaches or malicious hacks. The DAST tool scans running apps and APIs for potential vulnerabilities during the development stage before they reach a production environment. 

Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)

The IAST tool monitors live applications and APIs, quickly detecting and addressing vulnerabilities. It also possesses insights into application source code, which improves the accuracy and depth of issue detection.

The efficacy of testing tools is measured in several application security KPIs. These allow organizations to fine-tune their security practices and improve their security posture. 

KPIs of Application Security

KPIs are an adequate way to measure the success of any program (including cyber security) and support decision-making.

Number of Vulnerabilities Detected

It counts the number of vulnerabilities discovered with application security testing software. Tracking the average number of vulnerabilities per asset over time is beneficial rather than relying on scan results that do not include all your assets. It identifies the number of significant risk vulnerabilities in distinct asset groups and the duration of the exposure. 

Scan Frequency

It determines how thoroughly and accurately organizational IT assets are scanned for vulnerabilities. Regular scanning ensures new vulnerabilities are found quickly and helps maintain a proactive security posture. A higher scan frequency can result in earlier discovery of potential issues, reducing the window of vulnerability and improving security.

Average Time to Fix

It tracks the time it takes to address reported vulnerabilities. This can help companies discover risks and measure the efficiency of patch development. Many companies struggle to find time to fix identified vulnerabilities. With this metric in place, businesses may focus on shortening the remediation time, especially if they are not involved in virtual patching or attack prevention. 

Most Attacked URIs

Monitor the most frequently attacked URIs to determine your application's vulnerable areas. Understanding which URIs are the most susceptible allows you to prioritize security measures and devote resources effectively. It can also direct the implementation of further protections for these crucial areas. 

Conclusion

Organizations can successfully manage AppSec risks using application security testing tools and monitoring key performance indicators. Embracing the appropriate application security testing software ensures that adequate security protections are implemented across the SDLC, assisting in detecting and resolving issues. Regularly reviewing metrics and KPIs improves security posture, helping organizations to be resilient in the face of evolving threats.