Applications security provider ArmorCode whose customers include Shutterfly, SnapFinance, Snapdocs, Guardant Health, few Fortune 500 companies as well as cloud-native technology companies started during the pandemic, in July 2020. Nikhil Gupta co-founder & CEO of ArmorCode saw an increasing need for application security as digitisation accelerated and companies shifted to remote work. Threats have only increased even now with hybrid work becoming the norm. With operations based in California and Bangalore, ArmorCode recently raised $14m in a Series A funding round led by Ballistic Ventures. The round also saw participation from Sierra Ventures, Cervin Ventures and others.

A cloud-security specialist, Gupta’s previous startup Avid Secure was acquired by IT security company Sophos. In an e-mail interview Gupta discusses application security, impact of quantum computing on security, risks associated with Artificial Intelligence platforms like ChatGPT and more. Edited excerpts:

With Covid digitization, Work From Home increased and now hybrid work continues. How has that impacted security? Have risks gone up?

An Interpol assessment showed a significant increase in cyberattacks on corporations, governments and critical infrastructure after the onset of the pandemic. With organizations and businesses rapidly deploying remote systems and networks to support staff working from home, criminals took advantage of increased security vulnerabilities to steal data and cause disruption.

There is a rampant increase in phishing, scam, frauds, constituting about 59%, followed by malware / ransomware (36%), malicious domains (22%), and fake news (14%). With application security, which we focus on, we are trying to stem the problem at the source, that is where the software is created.

With all this digital transformation everything is moving to the public cloud like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. What we are seeing is both the application and infrastructure are combining and so is application security and vulnerability management.

But don’t app stores take care of the security or there’s a lot more that needs to be done?

When you write a software you do security testing, and everything else. There is a process for that. Now, what happens as things move to the cloud the attack surface increases. To give an example, there was a Fortune 100 bank which launched a new app but they didn’t come to know about a bug until it hit the App Store. Banks have very robust security policies but you can only secure what you know.

How big is the market you are addressing?

Application security is a $4.9 billion market today, which is going to grow to around $14 billion in 2026. Application security is growing at a CAGR of 23%. So, it’s the fastest and the biggest security segment. Then vulnerability management is around $13 billion today. It’s poised to grow to $90 billion in 2026. If you look at the overall intersection of application security, vulnerability management, security operations, this market is a $100 billion plus market.

With the threat landscape expanding, how are the challenges in digital security changing?

It’s a constant battle. Basically, it’s like a cat and mouse game. For example, 128-bit encryption used to be very good. And then 256-bit encryption became the norm. But now we are talking about quantum computing, and with that 256-bit encryption can be decrypted in seconds. What will happen when that kind of compute power is available?

Hacking becomes even easier. A lot of fundamentals are being rewritten. For example, earlier hacking used to take a long time but with cloud computing, hackers can go and write a script which does the hacking in seconds. And then they can just do DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks impacting thousands of computers.

With AI (Artificial Intelligence) and platforms like ChatGPT it is a lot easier for the bad actors to write malicious code. What are the risks associated with that?

ChatGPT, or AI, is like nuclear energy. You can create a nuclear power plant, and do good things, or you can make a nuclear bomb. AI is transforming the world across healthcare, security, self-driving cars, enterprise operations but at the same time, people can write malicious code faster with AI. So whenever you do something good, bad will be associated with it. I consider AI in the same bucket.

What’s the value proposition that you offer?

Number one is visibility; you cannot secure what you can’t see. We give you a 360-degree view of your application security and vulnerabilities. And number two, while you know, we are having an economic downturn, in the security world, there are 3 million openings worldwide. So, there is a huge shortage in security skills. ArmorCode helps address part of this problem with automation. We can help enterprises do more with less.