In the vast kitchen of modern software development, knowing what’s in your digital pantry has become more critical than ever.
Just as a cautious home cook carefully examines food labels for potential allergens or harmful additives, cybersecurity professionals are now taking a similar approach to software components.
“Are you consuming anything which might be toxic or that you’re allergic to?” explains Neil Levin, Senior Vice President of Product at Anchore. “It’s like checking what ingredients you have in the fridge. Are you consuming anything which maybe toxic?”
Founded in 2016, Anchore emerged at a time when software development was undergoing a significant transformation. “Initially, when the company was founded, it was looking at cloud-native security,” Levin explains. “Containers were coming in as a new type of technology that created lots of problems. They meant more ubiquitous use of open-source, with developers making choices which are very opaque to security teams.”
Driven by the rise of open source software (OSS), which Gartner estimates makes up 70% to 90% of any given software application, only 15% of organizations feel confident in their management practices. Software composition analysis, policy-driven curation of packages, and SBOMs have become increasingly critical for accelerated and safe consumption of OSS, including AI LLMs. Anchore SBOM can import and process SBOMs generated by any tool adhering to the SPDX or CycloneDX standards, creating transparency and establishing a comprehensive inventory of software components and dependencies, regardless of their origin.
“Without visibility into the components of your software, managing risk is impossible,” said Jessica Butler, Engineering Manager of Product Security at NVIDIA. “In today’s landscape-marked by heightened regulatory demands, an expanding attack surface, and high-profile supply chain breaches, Anchore’s SBOM-driven approach delivers the transparency and insight that our security experts and customers rely on.”
Anchore’s Enterprise Platform offers a comprehensive solution for managing software supply chain risks. Unlike traditional security tools, Anchore provides a holistic approach to software composition analysis, combining vulnerability management, compliance enforcement, and continuous monitoring. Key platform capabilities include:
- Automated vulnerability detection
- Policy-driven security controls
- Comprehensive software bill of materials (SBOM) generation
- Multi-cloud and hybrid environment support
“The premise of our technology was to build a complete inventory of every single piece of software at every part of the software development process life cycle,” Levin notes.
What sets Anchore apart is its unique approach to software bills of materials (SBOMs). “We didn’t call it that initially,” Levin admits, “but essentially, we were building SBOMs of every single commit and change of any part of the code from left to right.”
Initially popularized by Executive Order 14028 and the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act, SBOMs were seen by some as paperwork. But that perception is changing fast. The Software Bill of Materials is evolving from a regulatory requirement to a frontline tool for risk management, DevSecOps automation, and operational resilience.
SBOMs help organizations answer critical questions: What’s in my software? Where did it come from? Is it vulnerable? Do I trust it?
And perhaps no company has leaned into that question more than Anchore.
Anchore – Vulnerability Dashboard
The company’s early adoption by the Department of Defense was particularly noteworthy. “They were building a new DevSecOps practice at Platform One in the Air Force,” Levin recalls. “They took our initially open-source and commercial technology and adopted that.”
As cyber threats have evolved, so has Anchore’s mission. “Supply chain security is now the meta theme that everyone’s concerned about,” Levin explains.
Their new product release extends SBOM management capabilities beyond cloud-native applications to virtually any type of software.
Anchore – System Health Dashboard
Just as food labels help consumers understand what they’re eating, Anchore’s latest innovation – the Anchore Score – helps organizations understand their software’s potential risks. “We’re introducing something called the Anchore Score,” Levin explains, “which is essentially a rating to help you work out what’s the most important stuff to work on first.”
Anchore’s platform supports critical industries including:
- Government and Defense
- Financial Services
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
- Cloud-Native Development
Each sector benefits from Anchore’s ability to provide deep visibility into software components, tracking potential vulnerabilities from development through deployment.
Cybersecurity professionals and organizational leaders alike, it’s time to take control of your software supply chain by contacting Anchore to provide the following test phases:
- Free Vulnerability Assessment
– Request a comprehensive software composition analysis – Identify hidden risks in your current software ecosystem – Understand your true software supply chain exposure
- Personalized Enterprise Demo
– Tailored walkthrough of Anchore’s Enterprise Platform – Live vulnerability detection demonstration – Custom policy creation workshop
- Proof of Concept
– 30-day full-feature trial – Dedicated technical support – Comprehensive onboarding assistance
“We’re not presupposing what question you have to ask about your software,” Levin emphasizes. “We’re enabling you to get all the data in one place and then allow users to ask a question when they’re ready.”
Contact: Contact Anchore
Demo Request: Demo Request Link
Free SBOM Assessment: Trial of Anchore Enterprise
About the Author
Pete Green is the CISO / CTO of Anvil Works, a ProCloud SaaS company. With over 25 years of experience in information technology and cybersecurity, Pete is a seasoned and accomplished security practitioner.
Throughout his career, he has held a wide range of technical and leadership roles, including LAN/WLAN Engineer, Threat Analyst, Security Project Manager, Security Architect, Cloud Security Architect, Principal Security Consultant, Director of IT, CTO, CEO, Virtual CISO, and CISO.
Pete has supported clients across numerous industries, including federal, state, and local government, as well as financial services, healthcare, food services, manufacturing, technology, transportation, and hospitality.
He holds a Master of Computer Information Systems in Information Security from Boston University, which is recognized as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance / Cyber Defense (CAE IA/CD) by the NSA and DHS. He also holds a Master of Business Administration in Informatics.
