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DevSecOps Statistics 2026

Suphi Cankurt

Written by Suphi Cankurt

DevSecOps is the practice of integrating security testing into every phase of the software development lifecycle, from code commits and CI/CD pipelines through to production monitoring. Rather than treating security as a gate at the end, DevSecOps teams automate vulnerability scanning, dependency checks, and infrastructure-as-code validation directly in their workflows.

We pulled numbers from 14 industry reports (IBM, Verizon, Sonatype, Checkmarx, and others) published in 2024 and 2025, then added data from three studies we ran ourselves in February 2026. Every statistic links to its source. For broader application security data from our original research, see our Application Security Statistics page.

Key statistics at a glance

$4.88M
Average Data Breach Cost
IBM 2024
512K+
Malicious Packages Discovered
Sonatype 2024
4.8M
Cybersecurity Workforce Gap
ISC2 2024
97%
Codebases With Open Source
Black Duck OSSRA 2025
$1.7M
Saved With DevSecOps Adoption
IBM 2024
44%
Breaches Involving Ransomware
Verizon DBIR 2025

DevSecOps adoption & maturity

Most organizations say they do DevSecOps now. Dig into the numbers, though, and you’ll find a gap between “we have a platform” and “we actually scan before we ship.”

Adoption rates

Maturity gaps

Application security market

Security tooling spending keeps climbing. Here’s where the money is going.

Shift-left security

The idea is simple: find bugs before they reach production, when they’re cheaper to fix. The numbers back this up, but teams are still slow to patch what they find.

Cost multiplier

Adoption of early-stage testing

  • 63% of applications have first-party code flaws, and 70% have flaws from third-party libraries — Veracode State of Software Security 2024
  • Vulnerability exploitation as an initial breach vector nearly tripled year-over-year, reaching 14% of all breaches — Verizon DBIR 2024
  • Organizations take a median of 55 days to patch just 50% of critical vulnerabilities after patches become available — Verizon DBIR 2024

Software supply chain security

Attackers figured out that poisoning a popular npm or PyPI package is easier than breaching individual companies. The numbers from 2024 are grim.

Malicious packages

Open-source risk

Third-party breaches

  • Third-party involvement surged to 30% of all breaches, doubling from 15% the previous year — Verizon DBIR 2025

Vulnerability remediation

Organizations find vulnerabilities faster than they fix them. That gap between discovery and remediation is where attackers operate.

Remediation timelines

Security debt

CI/CD pipeline security

Faster delivery means faster exposure if security isn’t baked into the pipeline. Hardcoded secrets and missing scans in deployment stages are still common.

Pipeline scanning adoption

Developer security

There aren’t enough people who can write code and think about security at the same time. The workforce numbers tell the story.

Workforce gap

Developer time on security

AI-assisted development risks

Cost of insecurity

Breaches keep getting more expensive. The one bright spot: organizations that invest in DevSecOps and automation spend significantly less when things go wrong.

Breach costs

Breach timeline

  • Organizations with AI and automation had a breach lifecycle 108 days shorter than those without (214 days vs. 322 days) — IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2024
  • 44% of confirmed breaches involved ransomware in 2025, up from 32% the previous year — Verizon DBIR 2025
  • 88% of basic web application attacks involved stolen credentials — Verizon DBIR 2025
  • The 2025 DBIR covered 22,000+ incidents and 12,195 confirmed breaches, its largest dataset yet — Verizon DBIR 2025

AppSec Santa’s own research

We don’t just cite other people’s reports. Here’s what we found in our own February 2026 research.

AI-Generated Code Security Study

We gave 6 LLMs 89 identical coding prompts and scanned the output with 5 SAST tools. 25.1% of the 534 generated code samples had confirmed vulnerabilities. SSRF (CWE-918) was the most common weakness. GPT-5.2 had the lowest vulnerability rate at 19.1%. Full study: AI-Generated Code Security Study 2026.

Security Headers Adoption Study

We scanned the Tranco Top 10,000 websites and analyzed HTTP security headers from 7,510 valid responses. Only 27.3% deploy Content-Security-Policy, and 48.8% of those use unsafe-inline — undermining XSS protection. Full study: Security Headers Adoption Study 2026.

State of Open Source AppSec Tools

We analyzed GitHub data for 65 open-source security tools across 8 categories. Combined they hold 608,000+ stars, but the median health score is just 58 out of 100. Four tools are flagged as at-risk. Full study: State of Open Source AppSec Tools 2026.

For more statistics from our original research — including AI code vulnerability rates, OWASP category breakdowns, and open-source tool health scores — see our Application Security Statistics page.

Sources & methodology

Every number on this page links to a published report or to our own research. If we can’t verify it, we don’t include it.

Industry reports cited:

Original research (AppSec Santa, February 2026):

Frequently Asked Questions

What is DevSecOps?
DevSecOps integrates security practices into every phase of the software development lifecycle, from planning and coding through testing, deployment, and operations. Instead of treating security as a final gate before release, teams embed automated security checks directly into CI/CD pipelines.
What is the current DevSecOps adoption rate?
Adoption varies by metric. According to GitLab’s 2024 survey, 56% of developers say their organization uses a DevSecOps platform. Datadog’s 2024 report found that 71% of AWS organizations use infrastructure-as-code, a core DevSecOps practice. However, full maturity remains low — 38% of AWS organizations still deploy manually in production.
How much does DevSecOps reduce data breach costs?
According to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach report, organizations with high DevSecOps adoption saw breach costs nearly $1.7 million lower than organizations with low or no DevSecOps adoption. Extensive use of AI and automation in security cut breach costs by an additional $2.2 million.
How often is this page updated?
We update this page quarterly as new industry reports and research data become available. Each statistic links to its original source.
How big is the DevSecOps market?
The DevSecOps market was valued at $5.9 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $24.2 billion by 2032, growing at a 19.4% CAGR, according to Fortune Business Insights. The broader application security market is projected to reach $25.30 billion by 2030.
What percentage of code has open-source vulnerabilities?
According to Black Duck’s 2025 OSSRA report, 97% of commercial codebases contain open-source components, and 81% of those codebases have at least one high- or critical-risk vulnerability. Sonatype found that 80% of application dependencies remain un-updated for over a year.
Can I cite these statistics?
Yes. Please cite as: ‘DevSecOps Statistics 2026, AppSec Santa (appsecsanta.com).’ Every data point links to its source report.
Suphi Cankurt
Suphi Cankurt

Application Security @ Invicti

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10+ years in application security. Reviews and compares 162 AppSec tools across 10 categories to help teams pick the right solution. More about me →

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