Strategies for Detecting Emerging Threats
Detecting emerging application threats early on requires a combination of tools and processes that provide visibility, intelligence, and actionable insights.
The data reveals that vulnerability scanners are the most frequently utilized tool to detect application threats, with 71% of respondents relying on them to identify application weaknesses. Real-time monitoring follows closely at 67%, reflecting the importance of continuous observation to detect active threats as they unfold. Threat intelligence feeds, employed by 60%, provide crucial context on the latest attack trends. This context is important for making the proper prioritization and supporting business decisions. In contrast, penetration testing, used by 58%, serves as a proactive measure to uncover vulnerabilities before adversaries can exploit them. The consistent reliance on these tools underscores the need for layered and integrated approaches to application threat detection.
These findings align with practices where multiple tools are successfully employed in tandem. For example, in the 2023 MOVEit Transfer breach, attackers exploited a zero-day vulnerability in the widely used file transfer software. Organizations leveraging real-time monitoring and updated threat intelligence feeds could detect unusual activity early and patch the vulnerability quickly, minimizing the impact. This incident underscores the necessity of combining proactive scanning with reactive monitoring to address evolving threats effectively.
Applying AI and Machine Learning in Security
Given the increasing reliance on real-time monitoring, vulnerability scanning, and threat intelligence feeds discussed earlier, integrating AI models into these functions is a natural progression to enhance detection, analysis, and response capabilities, and ideally to provide business context and recommendations for the near future.
The survey reveals that 61% of respondents apply AI to threat detection and response, making it the most common use case. This reflects the growing need for advanced solutions to identify complex attack patterns in real time. Anomaly detection follows closely at 57%, emphasizing the importance of pinpointing irregular user and machine behaviors that may signal potential threats. Behavioral analysis, used by 50%, further illustrates the focus on understanding user and entity behaviors to identify deviations that could indicate malicious activity. Automated remediation, employed by 42%, rounds out the list, showcasing an increasing trend toward using AI to take immediate action against detected threats, minimizing human intervention and response time.
Consolidating Application Security Tools
As organizations adopt increasingly sophisticated technologies to secure their applications, the proliferation of disparate tools often creates inefficiencies, rising expenses, and unnecessary complexity.
The data reveals that 43% of respondents are considering consolidating their application security tools this year— building on a broader trend where most organizations have already made the choice to streamline their toolsets to improve integration, reduce costs, and eliminate redundancies. However, 25% indicate no plans to consolidate, suggesting some organizations may be satisfied with their current setups or lack the resources to undergo such a transformation. The remaining 32% are uncertain, possibly highlighting hesitancy in the face of competing priorities or the challenges of selecting unified solutions that meet all security needs.
This trend aligns with broader discussions about the reliance on multiple tools for application threat detection, such as separate vulnerability scanners, real-time monitoring, and penetration testing, as mentioned previously. Tool sprawl often creates silos, delayed response, and operational inefficiencies, making consolidation an appealing strategy to streamline processes and improve collaboration across security teams.
How to Select Application Security Solutions
As organizations refine their security strategies, selecting application security tools or services can be challenging and must be guided by clear criteria that balance functionality, cost, and operational needs.
When asked to rank the most important factors, ease of use emerges as the top selection criterion, underscoring that in an increasingly complex application security landscape, organizations prioritize intuitive security tools that reduce operational burdens—even ahead of more robust security features—and help teams overcome the ongoing skills shortage. Pricing and licensing are ranked second, highlighting budget constraints and the demand for flexible, cost-effective solutions. The comprehensiveness of capabilities comes in third, signaling that organizations value tools capable of addressing various security challenges. Accuracy ranks fourth, emphasizing the need for reliable detection and prevention to minimize false positives and negatives, while scalability and ease of integration round out the middle of the rankings, pointing to the operational practicality of solutions.
This prioritization aligns with broader trends discussed earlier, such as the push toward consolidating security tools (43% plan to consolidate in 2025), where ease of integration and comprehensive capabilities play essential roles. Additionally, the reliance on real-time monitoring and advanced technologies like AI for threat detection highlights the critical importance of accuracy and scalability, as organizations must respond to increasingly sophisticated threats at scale.
Increasing Budget for Application Security
As threats against applications’ complexity grows, organizations adjust their resource allocation to prioritize evolving security needs.
Most respondents (58%) report that their budgets for securing applications will increase in the next 12 months, reflecting the growing recognition of application security as a critical component of organizational risk management. Meanwhile, 35% expect budgets to remain the same—meaning about one in three organizations will not increase their cybersecurity investments—suggesting they believe current allocations are sufficient to maintain existing security postures. Only 7% anticipate a decrease in their application security budgets, showing that reductions are relatively rare and likely constrained to organizations with limited resources or shifting priorities.
These findings align with previously discussed trends, such as the push for consolidating application security tools and the growing reliance on advanced technologies like AI for threat detection and response. The increased investment in security is a logical response to concerns over sophisticated threats, like AI-generated attacks and human-like bots, and the need for comprehensive visibility across applications and APIs.
Investment Priorities for Application Security
As organizations face increasingly complex threats in cloud environments, their investment priorities and resource allocation reveal the strategies they are adopting to enhance application security.
Security automation leads the list, cited by 50% of respondents, reflecting the growing emphasis on streamlining processes to address security gaps efficiently and at scale. Staff training follows at 47%, underscoring the recognition that human expertise is as critical as technology in mitigating risks. AI-driven security solutions, prioritized by 45%, illustrate the demand for advanced tools to detect and respond to emerging threats proactively. Investments in threat intelligence (40%) and compliance management (37%) highlight the need to stay ahead of adversaries while navigating the increasingly stringent regulatory landscape.
These investment priorities align with broader survey findings, such as increased budgets for application security (58% planning budget increases) and the focus on leveraging AI and machine learning for threat detection and anomaly analysis. The emphasis on automation and AI solutions also complements previously discussed trends in tool consolidation, where integrated, scalable platforms can deliver the efficiency organizations are seeking.
Essential Best Practices for Robust Web Application Security
With evolving threats targeting web applications, fortifying application security is critical for reducing risks and ensuring business resilience. The following best practices, backed by industry data, provide a structured approach to strengthening application defenses.
1.EXPAND VISIBILITY ACROSS HYBRID AND MULTI-CLOUD ENVIRONMENTS
Seventy-eight percent of organizations run applications in multi-cloud or hybrid ecosystems, and many struggle with limited visibility across disparate platforms. Adopting a single interface consolidating security and delivery services helps unify policy management, monitor real-time activity, and spot anomalies before they escalate. By centralizing oversight and reducing manual coordination, teams gain the observability to proactively defend against misconfigurations, human error, and stealthy exploits lurking in siloed environments.
2.LEVERAGE AI FOR PROACTIVE THREAT DETECTION
With 61% of organizations adopting AI for threat detection, it is crucial to utilize AI-driven risk scoring, automated threat intelligence, and behavioral analytics to prioritize threats based on their exploitability and business impact. Adaptive security models dynamically adjust defenses, automatically mitigating high-risk threats and minimizing false positives. Real-time, AI-driven threat analytics enhance response times to zero-day threats with maximum accuracy, alleviating alert fatigue and allowing security teams to concentrate on the most critical vulnerabilities.
3.SECURE APIS TO PREVENT DATA LOSS
Fifty-eight percent of respondents cite API security as a primary concern, reflecting how interconnected services can become gateways for threats. Poorly secured APIs have led to breaches like the 2022 Optus API incident, where an unprotected endpoint exposed sensitive customer data. To mitigate these risks, organizations should implement an integrated approach that discovers and catalogs API endpoints, enforces schemas and protocols, and detects anomalous behaviors in HTTP traffic and API calls in real time.
4.IMPLEMENT ADVANCED BOT PROTECTION TO STOP AUTOMATED THREATS
Sophisticated bots are increasingly used for credential stuffing, web scraping, and API abuse, often bypassing traditional security defenses. To combat these threats, organizations must deploy AI powered bot management solutions that leverage behavioral analysis, machine learning, and deception techniques to neutralize automated attacks. Proactive bot mitigation combined with real-time behavioral analytics ensures organizations protect cloud-hosted assets, user accounts, intellectual property, and online revenue from sophisticated, human-like bot threats.
5.ENSURE CONSISTENT COMPLIANCE AND OBSERVABILITY
Regulatory pressures remain high, with 51% of respondents facing compliance complexities in cloud environments. Web application security that provides both broad coverage and deep observability helps maintain regulatory obligations while detecting and mitigating threats. Teams can proactively audit configurations, enact automated policy updates, and leverage real-time analytics to address evolving compliance requirements and avoid costly violations.
6.UNIFY AND CONSOLIDATE APPLICATION SECURITY TOOLS TO SIMPLIFY OPERATIONS
Fragmented security tools create visibility gaps, inefficiencies, and operational silos. 43% of organizations plan to consolidate their security tools to streamline operations and mitigate blind spots. Adopting a comprehensive, cloud-delivered solution that unifies web application and API security, advanced bot protection, threat analytics, content delivery network (CDN), and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) capabilities lowers operational overhead and ensures consistent policy enforcement. This approach helps security teams address blind spots by centralizing policies and simplifying management across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
By adopting these strategies, organizations can strengthen their security defenses, minimize risks, and build a more resilient application security posture.
Methodology and Demographics
The 2025 Web Application Security Report is based on a comprehensive survey conducted in early 2025, which gathered insights from 651 IT and cybersecurity professionals in a wide range of industries, including technology, financial services, healthcare, and government. Respondents represent organizations of varying sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises, and include professionals in roles ranging from cybersecurity specialists to C-level executives.
The online survey explored key trends, challenges, and priorities in web application security. The findings provide a well-rounded view of how organizations are navigating the complexities of protecting web applications and adopting security technologies to address emerging threats.
For questions that allow respondents to select multiple answers, the percentages may total more than 100%, as participants could choose more than one option.
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Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) secures the largest enterprises, services providers, and government organizations around the world. Fortinet empowers our customers with complete visibility and control across the expanding attack surface and the power to take on ever-increasing performance requirements today and into the future. Only the Fortinet Security Fabric platform can address the most critical security challenges and protect data across the entire digital infrastructure, whether in networks, application, multi-cloud, or edge environments. Fortinet ranks #1 as a security company, with more than 800,000 clients who trust their solutions and services to protect their businesses. www.fortinet.com
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