Near Misses

Near misses are safety incidents that almost happened, but didn't.

In aviation and medicine, near misses are treated as early warnings and investigated thoroughly. In software, they are rarely tracked.

When a defect is found internally, it is usually fixed quietly and forgotten. Near misses reveal where the system is fragile. Tracking them can improve software safety before attackers find the same weaknesses.

Organizations that embody a secure-by-design philosophy treat near misses as learning opportunities, not lucky escapes.

Discussion prompts

• Does your appsec team have a process for documenting and reviewing near misses?
• Have you had a near-miss in your product development process? What saved it from becoming a full blown incident?
• How would your security posture change if you treated every close call as a signal?