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DevSecOps Statistics 2026

Suphi Cankurt

Written by Suphi Cankurt

Key Takeaways
  • The average global data breach cost fell 9% to $4.44 million in 2025 — the first decline in five years — while organizations using security AI and automation saved $1.9 million per breach and cut lifecycle by 80 days (IBM 2025).
  • Over 512,000 malicious packages were discovered in open-source registries in 2024, a 156% increase year-over-year, while 97% of commercial codebases contain open-source components (Sonatype 2024, Black Duck OSSRA 2025).
  • The global cybersecurity workforce gap grew to 4.8 million unfilled positions in 2024, with 67% of organizations reporting a shortage of cybersecurity staff (ISC2 2024).
  • 81% of organizations admit to knowingly shipping vulnerable code under deadline pressure, and 50% carry accumulated security debt, 70% of which originates from third-party library flaws (Checkmarx 2025, Veracode 2025).
  • The DevSecOps market was valued at $5.9 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $24.2 billion by 2032 at a 19.4% CAGR (Fortune Business Insights).

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.

I pulled numbers from 14 industry reports (IBM, Verizon, Sonatype, Checkmarx, and others) published in 2024 and 2025, then added data from three studies I ran myself in February 2026. Every statistic links to its source.

For broader application security data from my original research, see my Application Security Statistics page.

Key statistics at a glance#

$4.44M
Average Data Breach Cost
IBM 2025
512K+
Malicious Packages Discovered
Sonatype 2024
4.8M
Cybersecurity Workforce Gap
ISC2 2024
97%
Codebases With Open Source
Black Duck OSSRA 2025
$1.9M
Saved With Security AI & Automation
IBM 2025
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#

81% of organizations ship vulnerable code knowingly under deadline pressure, 50% carry accumulated security debt, 70% of that debt from third-party code, and 80% of dependencies un-updated over a year

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#

512,847 malicious packages discovered in open-source registries in 2024, a 156% increase year-over-year, with 33,000+ new CVEs disclosed, 25,229 exposed secrets in registries up 64%, and 97% of codebases containing open-source

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#

Remediation gap ranges from 35 days for internet-facing critical vulnerabilities to 11 months for third-party SCA vulnerabilities, with 45.4% of enterprise vulnerabilities unpatched after 12 months

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#

  • Average global data breach cost fell to $4.44 million in 2025, down 9% from $4.88 million in 2024 — the first decline in five years — IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025
  • US breach costs reached a record high of $10.22 million, up 9% year-over-year — IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025
  • Extensive use of security AI and automation saved an average of $1.9 million per breach — IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025
  • Organizations with high DevSecOps maturity paid nearly $1.7 million less per breach than those without — the most recent IBM breakdown specifically by DevSecOps practice — IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2024

Breach timeline#

  • The global average breach lifecycle dropped to 241 days in 2025, a 17-day reduction from 2024’s 258 days and the lowest level in nearly a decade — IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025
  • Organizations extensively using security AI and automation cut their breach lifecycle by an additional 80 days on average — IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025
  • 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
IBM 2025 breach cost data: global average fell 9% to $4.44M (first decline in five years), security AI and automation saved $1.9M per breach and cut lifecycle by 80 days, global lifecycle dropped to 241 days

My own research#

I also run my own research. Here is what I found in February 2026.

AI-Generated Code Security Study#

I gave 6 LLMs 87 identical coding prompts and scanned the output with 5 SAST tools. 25.7% of the 522 generated code samples had confirmed vulnerabilities.

SSRF (CWE-918) was the most common weakness, and GPT-5.2 had the lowest vulnerability rate at 19.5%. Full study: AI-Generated Code Security Study 2026 .

Security Headers Adoption Study#

I 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#

I 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 my original research, see my Application Security Statistics page. For deeper dives into specific topics: Software Vulnerability Statistics (CVE trends, remediation timelines), Supply Chain Attack Statistics (malicious packages, open source risk), and AI Security Statistics (LLM vulnerabilities, prompt injection).

Sources & methodology#

Every number on this page links to a published report or to my own research. If I cannot verify it, I do not 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?
IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach report found that organizations extensively using security AI and automation saved an average of $1.9 million per breach and cut their breach lifecycle by 80 days. Earlier IBM 2024 data showed organizations with high DevSecOps maturity paid nearly $1.7 million less per breach than those without.
How often is this page updated?
I 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

Written & maintained by

Suphi Cankurt

Eight years on the vendor side of application-security sales — thousands of evaluations and demos. I started AppSec Santa in 2022 to put that insider view to work for buyers. Independent of any vendor, paid by none, and honest about what fits whom.

Methodology Contact LinkedIn