Product security teams are not struggling because they lack data. They are struggling because they have too much of it and too little context to act on it effectively.
Across automotive and other cyber-physical industries, security tooling has become extremely good at surfacing information. CVEs. Dependencies. Software versions. Misconfigurations. Potential exploit paths. This level of visibility was once a gap. Today, it is rarely the limiting factor.
Yet despite unprecedented insight into what exists, many organizations are seeing a widening gap between what they know and what they can realistically address.
When More Visibility Creates Less Clarity
Security programs have spent years investing in discovery and monitoring. The assumption was straightforward. If we can see everything, we can secure everything.
In practice, this assumption has not held.
Most vulnerability management workflows still rely on flat lists. Findings are ranked largely by generic severity scoring and pushed into backlogs that grow faster than teams can respond. High severity issues accumulate. Engineering teams chase alerts. Real risk reduction slows.
The result is alert fatigue, not stronger security.
The Core Problem Is Not Tooling. It Is Context.
Modern security tools are capable of identifying nearly every known vulnerability. What they struggle to do is explain which vulnerabilities actually matter in a specific product, configuration, and operational environment.
Without context, vulnerabilities are evaluated as standalone findings, without product context. They are prioritized based on generic attributes rather than real-world impact.
As Darren Shelcusky, former Senior Manager of Product Cybersecurity at Ford, has described:
Modern security stacks can surface every CVE, every outdated library, every weak configuration, every dependency, every possible exploit. What they cannot do, without deeper context, is tell you what matters.
That gap between visibility and understanding is what turns data into noise.
Vulnerability Volume Is Not the Same as Risk
Security teams routinely report the same challenges.
Vulnerability lists that grow faster than teams can act.
Time spent triaging findings that never pose real exposure.
Difficulty explaining why certain issues were fixed while others were deferred.
These are not failures of discipline or effort. They are failures of prioritization driven by missing context.
A CVE does not carry the same meaning everywhere. Its real risk depends on where it exists, how it is used, and what it can affect.
While vulnerability volume cannot be eliminated in complex products, prioritization based on real-world impact is both possible and necessary.
Why This Is Especially Critical in Product and Automotive Security
This problem becomes more acute in product security environments.
Modern vehicles and other connected products are complex systems composed of hundreds of software components sourced from many suppliers. They are updated continuously and operate in safety-critical and regulated contexts.
In automotive, security teams must manage risk across large and evolving software supply chains, multiple product variants and configurations, continuous software updates and post-market changes, and regulatory frameworks such as UN R155 and UN R156.
Alert Fatigue Is a Signal of Missing Context
Alert fatigue is often framed as a people or process problem. Teams need better workflows or stricter SLAs.
In reality, alert fatigue is a signal that decision quality has broken down.
Security teams are being asked to make high-impact decisions without the information needed to separate signal from noise. When everything looks critical, teams are forced to guess.
As Darren Shelcusky, former Senior Manager of Product Cybersecurity at Ford, observed:
Teams keep drowning in alerts not because they lack discipline, but because their tools lack context.
From Vulnerability Lists to Risk-Based Decisions
Reducing risk at scale requires a shift in focus.
Visibility answers what exists. Context answers what matters.
Context connects vulnerability data to product architecture, exposure, and real-world impact. It allows teams to focus remediation efforts where they actually reduce risk and to defensibly defer issues that do not.
How C2A Applies Context to Product Security
C2A was built to close the gap between visibility and action.
Rather than generating more alerts, C2A helps organizations understand vulnerabilities within the context of their products, software architectures, and operational environments. The objective is clarity and prioritization, not volume.
Knowing What Matters Is the New Security Baseline
Security maturity is no longer defined by how much data a team collects. It is defined by how effectively that team reduces real risk.
Organizations that move beyond raw visibility and adopt context-driven product security are better positioned to scale, comply, and respond without overwhelming their teams.
Call to Action
If your product security teams are overwhelmed by vulnerability volume and struggling to turn alerts into action, it may be time to rethink how context is applied to risk.
Learn how C2A helps organizations move from vulnerability lists to risk-based decisions across the full product lifecycle.
Visit c2a-sec.com to learn more or request a demo.
