Key Application Security Practices to Follow in 2025

Applications have already long become an integral part of our lives. Thus, whatever you need to do, there is likely to be an app helping you handle routines like buying tickets, managing medical prescriptions, and even voting in elections or registering a marriage. However, today’s apps have become far more advanced and interconnected than they were before.

Ongoing digital transformation has reshaped numerous industries by moving those from hardware-centric approaches toward more adaptable and scalable software-driven models. It typically takes two main paths: first, replacing paper-based processes with brand-new digital systems, and second – redesigning hardware-reliant products with software-first approaches. Hence, many solutions, including traditional ones, such as radios, vehicles, and defense tools are now software-defined and operate as part of interconnected ecosystems. This increases their efficiency and streamlines data sharing across platforms for a better user experience. Yet, this also brings new security challenges. Even a single weakness in one system can cascade through the entire network, disrupting operations, exposing sensitive data, putting public safety and critical sectors at risk.

In this new context, the traditional security approaches are no longer enough, and the focus shifts towards building prior application resiliency rather than taking reactive practices.

New Approaches to Application Security

More and more organizations now develop their own application to streamline processes, enhance customer service, and gain a competitive edge in the market. However, they often rely on software engineers, rather than security experts, to implement app security practices. Since developers primarily focus on the application functionality and view security as a secondary aspect, it often gets overshadowed. As a result, many vulnerabilities remain unsolved at the applications’ core, leading to significant risks for interconnected systems.

That is why, in 2025, the regulatory framework is about to introduce stricter requirements for organizations to assess and mitigate security risks. This includes mandating preventive practices and their integration throughout the development process to increase application resilience against possible attacks. These practices are not just hype trends but proven methodologies that have helped companies worldwide avoid severe breach consequences and costly remediation. Further, we’ll describe these practices in detail to help you navigate the security landscape for the coming years and strengthen your app security from the start.

Application Security Approaches Trending in 2024-2025

The journey to achieving application resiliency is rather an endurance run than a short sprint. It requires adopting multiple approaches that build up as the foundation for broader security strategies, ensuring apps’ reliability through a lifecycle. Thus, if you are on your way to building or rethinking your application security posture, the following practices will be helpful to guide your effort:

1. Integrating DevSecOps

Historically, the primary method for assessing app security was penetration testing, often performed right before the product release. Yet, this practice has limitations, as it focuses on specific areas only. This means it may not cover the entire application and leave gaps where flaws could remain hidden, for instance, in untested code paths, newly added features, or complex integrations.

In response to these limitations, the DevSecOps approach came into play.
Unlike penetration testing, it helps monitor the state of an application’s security continuously and at every development phase. This became possible thanks to its automated tools for static, dynamic, and interactive (SAST, DAST, IAST) application security testing. Those solutions integrate into the CI/CD pipelines and allow software engineers to detect flaws early on during development, even when the code has just been committed. All this not only strengthens an app’s security from within but also saves cost and time on difficult manual code reviews.

However, it is important to mention that despite the advantages of automation, the DevSecOps approach is not a catch-all solution. It still needs the oversight of security experts to configure tools and interpret their findings properly. Nonetheless, DevSecOps has already proven its value through numerous success stories and will be a must-have application security practice for the coming years.

2. Focusing on Software Supply Chain Security (SSCS)

Software is typically composed of thousands of elements, including open-source libraries, frameworks, APIs, and third-party components. All these parts are essential to streamline the development process, but at the same time, a large amount of integrations creates interdependencies between systems increasing their exposure to potential attacks.

In interconnected systems, a weakness in one component, especially widely used, can compromise the entire application. The real-world example of such an incident is the Log4j case. The critical flaw found in this open-source library affected countless organizations worldwide, potentially granting hackers total control of devices running unpatched versions of Log4j.

Unfortunately, that case is not a unique example of vulnerability within supply chain software. That is why modern security regulations now prioritize software transparency and utilization of the best security practices for vulnerability management.

Against this backdrop, Software Supply Chain Security (SSCS) has emerged as a methodology. It joins concepts and tools that help break down software into separate components, check their licenses, and search for potential vulnerabilities. Tools like Software Composition Analysis (SCA) and Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) give organizations better visibility into the software solutions they use and allow react quickly to security issues as they occur.

Since companies now rely on numerous applications, it becomes nearly impossible to ensure their reliability without specialized tools, leading to overlooked flaws and increased security risks. Hence, SSCS is not a trend only for 2025 but an essential practice for years ahead.

3. Establishing Application Security Posture Management (ASPM)

Organizations today use various solutions to maintain their security posture. However, those systems usually operate independently, making it challenging to efficiently monitor all the metrics for the app portfolio. This leads to a logical question: how can we consolidate all the indicators to track important metrics at once? This is where Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) became handy. As centralized solutions, such tools aggregate data from various security systems, providing a timely, clear, and comprehensive overview of a current app security state.

On top of that, the high demand for cloud-based applications drew attention to their security as well. That is why businesses combine ASPM tools with SaaS security posture management (SSPM) tools that review the reliability of integrations, SaaS configurations, and user permissions. These solutions provide a centralized view of all third-party SaaS applications, ensuring their security aligns with the organization’s overall posture.

Key Takeaways

Every business is unique, and you should choose a security approach that better suits your current app security state, challenges, and resources. For example, if your organization doesn’t yet have a consistent security framework, consider starting with DevSecOps. Next, it will be useful to assess your infrastructure to see whether it depends on third parties. If so, consider adopting Supply Chain Security Measures to avoid issues with external systems dependencies.

In case your security posture is already well-framed but tracking metrics from numerous security tools feels overwhelming, integration of a consolidated ASPM platform can be of help. You might also opt for the balanced approach, combining all these practices and ensuring a robust security foundation for your organization.

However, finding the strategy that will work best for you requires deep security expertise. So, if you are unsure of which approach to choose or need help with the security tools integration – contact us. Our experts have decades of experience in delivering reliable applications and are ready to assist you in strengthening your security posture.

• #App Development
• #Information Security