As vulnerability counts rise and attack windows shrink, organisations face a stark reality: it’s not how fast you can detect risk, but how fast you can resolve it. MTTR has become the most telling indicator of whether a security programme is working.
And yet, industry data reveals that most companies are falling short. The average MTTR to fix a critical vulnerability remains a staggering 270 days, even as adversaries exploit new vulnerabilities in less than 24 hours. Security leaders don’t need another dashboard, they need a cultural shift.
In 2025, that shift is finally happening, driven by a deeper understanding of risk ownership and a renewed commitment to empowering developers. At the heart of this movement is a growing body of evidence linking clear accountability and developer engagement to faster remediation times and lower breach rates.
MTTR used to be a statistic buried in security reports. Today, it’s a board-level metric. Insurance providers evaluate it when pricing cyber liability coverage. Regulators ask for it in audits. Boards increasingly want it explained not in technical jargon, but in dollars and days. And the business case is simple: every hour a vulnerability sits unresolved is another hour your company is exposed; legally, reputationally, financially.
But understanding MTTR isn’t enough. Fixing it requires pinpointing where the process breaks down. That’s where ownership comes in.
Research shows that when security teams can tie vulnerabilities to specific code owners from the outset, remediation happens significantly faster. When no one owns the risk, it dies in the backlog. Recent studies by firms like Gartner and EchoLayer confirm what many in AppSec already suspected: risk ownership is the lever that turns vulnerability data into action.
Yet ownership without engagement is a paper tiger. This is where Security Champion programmes, once a niche initiative are taking center stage. When properly implemented, Security Champions serve as embedded advocates within development teams. They don’t just chase tickets, they model secure behavior, arbitrate technical risk decisions, and help weave security into the development culture itself.
And the payoff is substantial. A recent survey commissioned by Nominet found that organisations with active Security Champion programmes were 65 percent less likely to experience a data breach than those without. That’s not a minor improvement, it’s a statistical wake-up call.
The challenge, of course, is scale. Most Security Champion programmes rely on manual nomination, self-selection, or manager recommendations; methods that rarely keep pace with growing development teams and shifting org charts. This is where innovation is finally catching up to need.
“It takes roughly 100 times longer to fix a vulnerability not authored by the developer in the company and these still make up the majority of vulnerabilities, significantly slowing down development velocity,” stated Nir Valtman, co-founder and chief executive officer at Arnica.
One standout in this space is Arnica, an emerging leader in Application Security Posture Management (ASPM). Arnica has taken a bold step: automating the identification, activation, and support of Security Champions using behavioral analytics.
Rather than guess who might be a good candidate, Arnica’s system observes how developers behave, who fixes critical issues quickly, who reviews pull requests for security concerns, who takes proactive steps to reduce risk. Those actions, not titles or tenure, surface the real champions.
And once identified, those individuals are engaged directly inside the tools they already use: Slack, Teams, GitHub, GitLab. There’s no new portal to learn, no new process to follow. Security becomes part of the daily workflow, not an afterthought.
Valtman continued, “Arnica accelerates risk remediation by delivering real-time, blameless feedback directly to developers before code reaches production. By identifying the right person to fix each issue and integrating seamlessly into workflows like Slack and Teams, 78% of flagged issues are resolved without AppSec involvement, and 92% never make it to production.”
But Arnica goes further. Its new set of features, designed specifically for these champions, includes real-time risk dismissal workflows through ChatOps, dynamic ticket routing based on product ownership, and granular access controls that ensure developers see only the risks relevant to their role.
The result is a system that encourages accountability without overwhelming anyone. Champions can weigh in on waivers or remediation efforts quickly, without navigating bloated dashboards or chasing status updates.
Perhaps most importantly, the platform turns security engagement into professional capital. Champions become visible across the organisation, not as bottlenecks, but as leaders. That visibility translates into career growth, a critical incentive that keeps the programme thriving.
Valtman further stated, “Security champions aren’t just a checkbox, they’re the catalysts for secure development at scale. At Arnica, we’ve redefined what it means to be a security champion by automating their identification based on real developer behavior and embedding them into the development workflow. This turns security into a team sport; seamless, scalable and driven by the people already advocating for safer code.”
Of course, Arnica isn’t the only player addressing MTTR through innovation. GitHub’s Copilot Autofix feature, Apiiro’s risk graphing tools, and Armis’s ownership mapping across OT systems all reflect the broader industry momentum toward faster, smarter remediation. But Arnica’s Security Champion module may be the clearest example of how AppSec is evolving, not just as a function, but as a culture.
That cultural shift is what matters most. Because the real bottleneck in most organisations isn’t tooling or budget, it’s trust. Developers often view security as a blocker, not a partner. Security teams, in turn, see dev cycles moving too fast to keep up. Champions bridge that divide. And when empowered by data and supported by automation, they can do more than reduce MTTR, they can redefine the relationship between shipping fast and shipping safely.
For AppSec professionals, the message is clear: ownership and engagement are no longer optional. They are the foundation of any effective security strategy. For executives, the implications are equally urgent. If your MTTR remains high, if ownership is unclear, or if your developers don’t know who your champions are—then you are not just behind on security, you are exposed.
Security will always be a race against time. But with the right combination of analytics, automation, and advocacy, that race becomes winnable. The companies closing the MTTR gap are not just deploying tools, they’re building cultures of accountability. And in 2025, that’s the only culture that matters.
Valtman finished with, “Security champions aren’t just a checkbox, they’re the catalysts for secure development at scale. At Arnica, we’ve redefined what it means to be a security champion by automating their identification based on real developer behavior and embedding them into the development workflow. This turns security into a team sport; seamless, scalable, and driven by the people already advocating for safer code.”
