Why We Should Talk More About Product Security

We all know the following fact: software development is in overdrive. Agile, DevOps, cloud-native platforms, microservices, code co-pilots, you name it, have made shipping products faster and easier than ever. But here’s the catch: all that speed and innovation has created a tangled mess of interconnected parts. And when it comes to security, most teams are still trying to tackle the problem one layer at a time:infrastructure here, application code there, data somewhere else. 

And while this still covers main areas of concern, it also slows the business down. Modern software products are more like intricate ecosystems than neat stacks. If you’re only looking at security layer by layer, you’re missing the big picture, and leaving your product open to serious risk. Risk that is not confined to a single layer, but sprawls across all of them.

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The Problem with a Lack of Business Context

Let’s take a page out of the great movie Big Short, and look at how restaurants operate. Say you just built a new top-of-the-line restaurant, hired the best chef, and ensured the dining area is off the charts! But if you don’t understand how your customers move through the restaurant, their favorite dishes, or what drives repeat visits, you will be working hard to make the business work but could be focusing on the wrong things. Put simply, you will be losing money.

The same is true for product security. Without understanding the broader business context, security teams can’t make truly risk-driven decisions. This often leaves them riding in the dark, with the occasional streetlamp to guide them. In cloud-native products, where everything moves fast and every decision matters, security must align with the product’s goals.  

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The Challenge with Manual Security Reviews

At this point we expect you to stop and say, “don’t we already have security reviews to handle this? Aren’t they supposed to catch every potential issue, ensuring that every change and development is seen through the proper lens of security?” Technically, you’d be right; that’s exactly what security reviews are meant to do. But we are realists and not hopeless optimists: the process is still manual. It relies heavily on human effort, tracking changes, analyzing risks, and trying to keep up with the relentless pace of development.

Now let me adjust the question a bit: how can we secure the business when development velocity has skyrocketed, business logic evolves constantly, and security is overwhelmed with vertical security and is constantly understaffed? The gap is growing wider by the day.Without automation, context-driven insights, and a holistic approach, security teams are left playing catch-up, reacting to risks after they’ve already been introduced instead of preventatively mitigating them. If we’re going to keep up, the way we approach security reviews has to evolve. 

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Why Security Needs to Evolve

The reality is security can’t afford to be stuck in the past. Software development has evolved into a high-speed race where new features and updates are shipped daily. The business logic driving these changes is constantly shifting, and manual security processes just can’t keep up. 

To meet these demands, security needs to shift its mindset. It’s no longer about simply protecting individual layers or running manual reviews when something big is about to be released.It’s about building a security framework that understands the business context, moves at the speed of development, and sees the product as a dynamic, interconnected ecosystem. This means integrating automation, embracing a secure by design mindset, and embedding security into every aspect of the product lifecycle. Only by evolving in this way can security teams keep up with the pace of innovation while not only protecting the business, but also enabling it from the ground up.

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