15 Security Tools — But What's the Most Critical Risk?

Your organization has 15 different security tools. But do you truly know what the most critical risk to address right now is?

Over the past decade, organizations have invested significant resources in advanced security solutions. We've seen the addition of CSPM tools for the cloud, AppSec solutions for code, EDR systems for endpoints, SIEM platforms for SOCs, and specialized tools for managing identities, secrets, and sensitive data. Ostensibly, organizations have never had better visibility.

However, alongside the proliferation of tools, a new problem has emerged: each system only sees a small part of the overall picture.

The Challenge of Vertical Security

Most security solutions are built on a Vertical Security model. Each team operates within its own domain, consumes information from different systems, and addresses findings according to its specific area of responsibility. The development team focuses on code vulnerabilities, the cloud team on misconfigurations, the IAM team on excessive permissions, and the SOC team on real-time alerts.

Attackers, on the other hand, do not operate this way.

A modern attack might begin with a leaked secret in code, continue to a cloud resource with excessive permissions, exploit a known vulnerability in a system, and ultimately gain access to sensitive data in the production environment. Each of these events, when examined in isolation, might appear to be of medium severity. Only by connecting them can the true risk picture emerge.

Embracing Horizontal Security

This is why, in recent years, we have seen a gradual shift towards a Horizontal Security approach. Instead of analyzing each security layer in isolation, this new approach connects code, CI/CD processes, cloud infrastructures, runtime environments, identities, and business data. The goal is no longer just to identify another finding, but to understand how it can actually be exploited and what its business impact truly is.

In a world where organizations generate thousands of alerts daily, the challenge is no longer finding risks. The challenge is understanding the context between them and correctly prioritizing what truly requires immediate attention.

Wiz effectively helps facilitate this transition from a vertical security concept, where each layer is disconnected from the others, to a horizontal approach that connects Code, Cloud, and Runtime. This enables a complete understanding of the full story behind every risk.

Ultimately, attackers think and operate horizontally. To effectively counter them, security must also work in the same unified manner.