Analyst report
2026 Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Application Security
Gartner places Application Shielding less than two years from mainstream adoption, we feel this signals a growing demand for dedicated mobile application protection.
Download the report and we believe you will understand the trends shaping application security and learn how to evaluate and adopt emerging innovations at the right time for your organization.
Our key takeaways
- Application shielding is approaching mainstream adoption
Gartner places Application Shielding at adolescent maturity with less than two years to mainstream adoption, in our opinion this signals a growing demand for dedicated mobile app protection.
- High-value mobile apps face unique risks
Mobile applications operate on untrusted devices and expose sensitive data, business logic, and customer transactions, making protection against tampering, reverse engineering, and compromised environments increasingly critical.
- Hardening and anti-tampering remain foundational
Application Shielding helps protect mobile applications running on untrusted devices through techniques such as code obfuscation, anti-tampering, compromised-device detection, and other in-app protections.
“Mobile applications move software logic and place sensitive data on the user devices. These applications expose functionality that, unless shielded, can lead to attacks such as data exfiltration from the app or its back end, and fraud against the user or the application. Application shielding is an important security measure when applications convey or store sensitive data or enable payments.”
Gartner Hype Cycle for Application Security, 2026
App shielding is approaching mainstream adoption
Learn what that means for your mobile security strategy and how organizations are preparing for what’s next.
Gartner, Hype Cycle for Application Security, 2026, 21 July 2026, By Dionisio Zumerle.
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