AI-Powered AppSec, OWASP Origins, and Anthropic's "Mythos" Model: Jeff Williams on What Changes Next
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Jim hosts Jeff Williams (Contrast Security co-founder/CTO and former OWASP global chair) for a wide-ranging discussion that begins with Anthropic's new "Mythos" model, described as powerful for finding zero-day vulnerabilities, and expands into how AppSec must evolve. Williams explains Contrast's runtime instrumentation approach, recounts OWASP's early days, the creation of WebGoat and the OWASP Top 10, and notes that many common vulnerabilities persist despite years of maturity models. They debate open source versus commercial security scrutiny, the likely high cost and scalability limits of advanced AI vulnerability discovery, and why finding more bugs matters only if remediation improves too. Williams argues for AI-powered "software factories" with feedback loops, assurance evidence, and runtime monitoring, and flags the EU Product Liability Directive treating software as a product with no-fault liability for security defects, including those from embedded open source.
00:00 AppSec Stuck in Ruts 00:42 Show Intro and Sponsor 01:40 What Contrast Security Does 02:35 OWASP Origins and WebGoat 04:33 Why the Top 10 Persists 06:28 Mythos Model Overview 08:05 Open Source Scrutiny Myth 11:31 Cost and Adoption Barriers 15:04 Finding vs Fixing Bugs 15:55 AI Code Quality Reality 17:46 AI Powered Software Factory 23:11 Building with AI in Practice 25:18 AppSec Metrics and New Approaches 26:42 Staying Optimistic as a CISO 28:00 EU Product Liability Shift 32:13 Bug Bounties in an AI World 34:06 Wrap Up and Outro
