What is Application Security?

Application Security refers to the measures and practices taken to protect applications from threats, including code injections, data breaches, and other forms of attack. It encompasses the security considerations that happen during application development and design, but it also involves systems and approaches to protect apps after they get deployed.

Why is Application Security Important?

With the increasing reliance on software applications in business and government, security breaches can result in significant financial losses, theft of personal information, and damage to the reputation of the entities involved. Application Security tools help mitigate these risks by ensuring that applications are as secure as possible.

What are Common Application Security Threats?

Common threats include SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), security misconfigurations, sensitive data exposure, broken authentication, and software vulnerabilities.

How Can Application Security Be Implemented?

Implementing Application Security involves various practices, including regular code audits, adopting secure coding practices, utilizing security tools such as Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), and ensuring proper access controls and authentication measures.

What is the Difference Between SAST and DAST?

SAST (Static Application Security Testing) analyzes source code for security vulnerabilities without running the program, whereas DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) tests an application's security in a running state, simulating attacks against a web application.

Is Application Security Only Necessary for Web Applications?

No, Application Security is essential for all types of applications, including web, mobile, and desktop applications. Each type of application has unique security concerns that need to be addressed.

Can Application Security Guarantee a Completely Secure Application?

While Application Security significantly reduces the risk of security breaches and data leaks, no application can be 100% secure. Continuous monitoring and updating are necessary as new vulnerabilities are discovered.

What is the Role of Encryption in Application Security?

Data Encryption plays a crucial role in protecting sensitive data. It ensures that even if data is intercepted or accessed by unauthorized individuals, it remains unreadable and secure.

How Often Should Application Security Testing be Conducted?

Security testing should be an ongoing process. Ideally, it should be integrated into the development cycle, allowing for continuous testing and improvement as the application evolves.

What are the Best Practices for Application Security?

Best practices include conducting regular security audits, staying updated with the latest security trends and threats, implementing a secure development lifecycle, training developers in secure coding practices, and using automated tools for security testing.

Cybersecurity Security Tools

20+ Application Security Statistics & Trends

Cem Dilmegani

updated on Sep 20, 2025

See our ethical norms

We present an analysis of current statistics in the field of application security. Our focus is on providing a clear and concise overview of the latest data, reflecting key trends and insights in this area of cybersecurity.

The statistics compiled here are drawn from reputable and up-to-date sources. We consider a reputable and up-to-date source as one that is recognized for its credibility and expertise in its field and regularly updates its content to reflect the most current information and research.

Application security market

Statista forecasts a yearly growth rate of 14.14% from 2024 to 2028, predicting a market size of $11.83 billion by 2028.¹
Fortune predicts the global information security market will reach $366.1 billion by 2028. ²

For a list of application security tools, check our data-driven list.

Application vulnerabilities, flaws, and industry gaps

Application breaches, which often consist of stolen credentials and vulnerabilities, accounted for 25 percent of all violations. This emphasizes the critical need for securing applications, especially in an increasingly digital world.³
Over 75 percent of applications have at least one flaw. ⁴
The number of disclosed vulnerabilities reached 26,447, exceeding the count from the previous year by more than 1,500 CVEs. ⁵
A survey by Forrester Research found that 42% of companies suffering from external attacks attributed these incidents to vulnerabilities in software security. Additionally, 35% of these organizations identified the cause as defects in web applications. ⁶
61% of the applications tested were found to have at least one vulnerability of high or critical severity that was not included in the OWASP Top 10 list.⁷
83% of applications exhibit at least one security issue during their initial vulnerability assessment.⁸
32% of security decision-makers adopted Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) in their development environments.⁹
Unpatched vulnerabilities were involved in 60% of data breaches. ¹⁰
37% of organizations intend to conduct Software Composition Analysis (SCA) during the development phase to mitigate risks associated with vulnerable open-source components.¹¹
According to the State of DevOps Report by Contrast Security, over 99% of technologists report that applications in production have a minimum of four vulnerabilities.¹²

Data breaches

IBM reports that the highest recorded average data breach cost is $4.35 million, while the average ransomware attack cost is $4.54 million. ¹³
Verizon’s analysis shows that 70% of 2021 breaches were for financial gains, with less than 5% for espionage.¹⁴
On average, it takes about nine months (277 days) to detect and control a breach, according to IBM. ¹⁵
Check Point and Verizon indicate that 43% of breaches involve insiders, and 30% of breaches involve internal actors. ¹⁶
Mastercard states that 95% of data breaches result from human errors. ¹⁷
IBM highlights that breaches identified and contained within 200 days cost $1.02 million less than those taking longer.¹⁸
Organizations that utilize AI and automation programs were able to identify and contain a breach 28 days faster than those that didn’t. ¹⁹

Cost of cyberattacks

CNBC reports that GDPR fines reached $1.2 billion in 2021.²⁰
IBM mentions a 41% increase in ransomware-caused breaches, which take 49 days longer than average to manage. ²¹
DDoS attacks worldwide in 2023 are estimated to be 15.4M. ²²
Artificial intelligence can mitigate costs in data breaches, saving organizations up to $3.81M per breach.²³

For more on cybersecurity practices, tools, and comparisons:

FAQ

Reference Links

Application Security - Worldwide | Statista Market Forecast

Statista

Request Sample Pdf - Cybersecurity Market Size, Share, Analysis | Global Report 2032

2025 Data Breach Investigations Report | Verizon

State of Software Security Report 2024 | Veracode

Veracode

NVD - Home

The State Of Application Security, 2020 | Forrester

Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Application Security Testing | OpenText

State of Software Security Report 2024 | Veracode

Veracode

The State Of Application Security, 2020 | Forrester

10.

Ponemon study on gaps in vulnerability response - ServiceNow

11.

The State Of Application Security, 2020 | Forrester

12.

“The State Of DevSecOps Report” Contrast Security

13.

Cost of a data breach 2025 | IBM

14.

2025 Data Breach Investigations Report | Verizon

15.

Cost of a data breach 2025 | IBM

16.

2025 Data Breach Investigations Report | Verizon

17.

“Mastercard Trust Center” Mastercard

18.

Cost of a data breach 2025 | IBM

19.

Cost of a data breach 2025 | IBM

20.

Fines for breaches of EU GDPR privacy law spike sevenfold

CNBC

21.

Cost of a data breach 2025 | IBM

22.

Cisco Annual Internet Report - Cisco Annual Internet Report (2018–2023) White Paper - Cisco

Cisco

23.

Cost of a data breach 2025 | IBM

Principal Analyst

Cem Dilmegani

Principal Analyst

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Cem has been the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per similarWeb) including 55% of Fortune 500 every month.

Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider, Forbes, Washington Post, global firms like Deloitte, HPE and NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission. You can see more reputable companies and resources that referenced AIMultiple.

Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised enterprises on their technology decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization.

He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider.

Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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Application security market

Application vulnerabilities, flaws, and industry gaps

Data breaches

Cost of cyberattacks

For more on cybersecurity practices, tools, and comparisons:

FAQ

We follow ethical norms & our process for objectivity. AIMultiple's customers in Security Tools include NinjaOne, Invicti, Tufin, Druva, ManageEngine, Sentra.

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20+ Application Security Statistics & Trends

Application security market

Application vulnerabilities, flaws, and industry gaps

Data breaches

Cost of cyberattacks

For more on cybersecurity practices, tools, and comparisons:

FAQ

Reference Links

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