The 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report says most hacks still happen through breaches of web applications. For this reason, testing and securing applications (from my CSOonline article last month) has become a priority for many organizations. That job is made easier by a growing selection of application security tools. I put together a list of 13 of the best ones available, with descriptions of the situations where they can be most effective. I highlight both commercial and free products. The commercial products very rarely provide list prices and are often bundled with other tools from the vendor with volume or longer-term licensing discounts. Some of the free tools, such as Burp Suite, also have fee-based versions that offer more features.

This article has been replaced by a more recent piece written by John Breeden in 2022.