Over five years ago, Adrian Bridgwater wrote a Forbes article pronouncing that “If Software Is Eating The World, Then Open Source Will Chew It Up (And Swallow).” That statement is just as true today. Open source components have become a basic building block for software developers, providing them with ready-made solutions from a vast community that help them keep up with today’s speedy and frequent release cycles.
Open source is everywhere. Everyone is using it. Open source code is found in almost every proprietary software offering on the market and is estimated to make up on average 60%-80% of all software codebases in 2020. Why the proliferation? Open source libraries help developers write code faster to meet the increasingly shorter release cycles under DevOps pipelines. Instead of writing new code, developers leverage existing open source libraries to quickly gain needed functionality.
Most modern codebases are dependent on open source libraries. In fact, a recent research report sponsored by Veracode and conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) found that more than 96 percent of organizations use open source libraries in their codebase. But – shockingly – less than half of these organizations have invested in specific security controls to scan for open source vulnerabilities.
