Not every team has a security budget.
Not every project has a dedicated AppSec engineer.
But every product exposed to the internet needs some level of security to survive.
Most security advice assumes you have time, tools, and specialists.
However, many teams don't.
So instead of "perfect security", we need a practical line to aim for.
What "Minimal Viable Security" actually means?
Here's the part most people miss: Security and order go together.
If a system is messy, security becomes fragile.
So the foundation of minimal security is maintaining order -- clear ownership, clear standards, and
repeatable routines.
When order is consistent, security becomes much more natural.
Baseline-driven security means:
- Define a baseline you can realistically maintain
- Run checks against it regularly (PR, weekly, release)
- Track drift over time (what changed, what broke, what got ignored)
- Improve the baseline incrementally (not all at once)
It's the difference between "we care about security" and "we can prove our security basics are in place."