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Application security is evolving beyond tools and checklists towards empowering people. A prime example is Arnica’s newly launched “Security Champions with Arnica” feature – an innovation that automates the identification and engagement of security champions within development teams. It marks a significant milestone in the DevSecOps journey, addressing longstanding challenges in scaling security practices across organizations.
The challenge of traditional champion programs
In many organizations, security champions programs involve tapping developers to advocate for security. The concept is powerful, but implementation has been difficult. It’s often unclear how to find the right people and even harder to measure the program’s impact. As Arnica’s co-founder Nir Valtman noted, building such a program was challenging and “measuring success was almost impossible” with traditional approaches. These programs typically rely on volunteers or nominations, which can be subjective and inconsistent. This leads to untapped potential in the developer pool and efforts that often plateau. Industry research underscores the stakes: top-performing firms all had champion teams, whereas the lowest performers had none. Clearly, empowering developers in security correlates with success – the question is how to do it reliably and at scale.
Arnica’s data-driven approach to identify champions
Arnica’s Security Champions feature flips the script by using automation and data to discover and engage champions. Instead of word-of-mouth selection, Arnica continuously analyzes developer activity across the SDLC. It builds a behavioral graph to spot individuals who consistently contribute to secure coding – for example, those who promptly fix vulnerabilities or proactively review code for security. By mining signals from source control and peer reviews, Arnica pinpoints the key security-minded contributors on each team.
This automated identification ensures no active contributor goes unnoticed: a developer who quietly fixes bugs or hardens code is recognized by the system, even without seeking the spotlight. For the organization, a broader base of security talent is activated – uncovering organic security leaders in engineering teams. The platform also provides an identity-focused context for these contributions. Security teams gain visibility into who resolved which risks and when, tying improvements directly to individuals. Arnica can even report on risks mitigated early in feature branches that previously might only be caught in production. By making these impacts visible, Arnica turns a previously nebulous program into a data-driven practice.
Seamless integration into development workflows
Identifying champions is only half the battle – Arnica also integrates them into daily workflows. The platform meets developers where they work by embedding security notifications and actions into their native tools. Through integrations with source control and chat platforms, Arnica injects security into development flow without adding friction.
For example, if a risky code change is pushed, Arnica automatically notifies the relevant developer (and the team’s champion) via Slack or Microsoft Teams. Everyone stays in the loop through these channels, achieving “100% developer coverage”. The champion for that project is immediately aware of the issue and can act or guide their peers in real time. This minimizes context switching – developers don’t have to log into a separate dashboard or wait for a scheduled scan.
Arnica also streamlines the response workflow. If a high-severity flaw appears in a pull request, Arnica’s policy can require a champion’s sign-off before merge. Through ChatOps, the champion responds in the PR (e.g. “Acknowledged, fix pending”) or discusses the issue in chat, resolving it quickly. If it turns out to be a false alarm, they can dismiss the alert (with AppSec review if configured). All of this happens within familiar tools, enabling quick, collaborative risk mitigation. By having champions handle many issues on the spot, the traditional bottleneck of every decision waiting on the security team is reduced.
Business benefits and DevSecOps impact
What does this mean for the business? In short: faster fixes, less overhead, and a stronger security culture. Key benefits include:
- Accelerated Remediation: With real-time detection and champion ownership, vulnerabilities are fixed earlier. In one case study, teams saw a “measurable uptick in issues being resolved” – developers received alerts and immediately fixed the vulnerabilities. Fixing issues sooner lowers the chance of problems piling up or reaching production.
- Scaling Security Without More Headcount: By turning proficient developers into security champions, organizations extend AppSec coverage without major hiring. Routine issues are handled by those closest to the code, while the central security team focuses on critical matters. This distributes expertise and covers more ground without straining resources.
- Improved Developer Experience: Developers appreciate security tools that fit their workflow. Arnica’s in-context approach (PR comments, Slack/Teams notifications) reduces frustration and context-switching. Developers are more willing to embrace security processes, and those serving as champions gain recognition for their efforts – making security a point of pride.
- Measurable Outcomes: Arnica tracks champion-led risk reductions, giving engineering leaders and CISOs concrete metrics. They can see trends like a drop in open critical vulnerabilities or faster remediation times. This validation helps justify investments and moves security from a vague mandate to a results-driven practice.
Strategically, automating the champions program gives companies a DevSecOps edge. It aligns with “shift-left” principles by catching issues early and empowering those who write the code to also secure it. More importantly, it enables a scale-out of security knowledge across the organization, turning each development team into an extension of the security team. The end result is software that’s not only more secure, but also built with a security mindset at scale.
Leading the next phase of DevSecOps
“Security Champions with Arnica” heralds a new era where building a world-class security program is as much about people as it is about tools – and where smart automation connects the two. By identifying the developers best positioned to lead on security and seamlessly folding security into their daily work, Arnica has transformed a hard-to-manage initiative into a structured, data-driven practice.
For leaders, it means finally being able to measure and scale the human side of AppSec while reaping improved security and developer productivity. As the industry pushes forward, Arnica’s approach amplifies human expertise with intelligent tooling. Empowering security champions through Arnica could be a decisive turning point in securing software without slowing delivery.
