Implementing OWASP ASVS controls across application tiers

This article provides practical guidance for UK SMEs and technical teams on mapping OWASP ASVS controls to application tiers (presentation, application, data) and service types (public, partner, internal). It covers tier-specific identity and session management, input validation and encoding, access control strategies for distributed systems, secrets and cryptography handling, secure configuration and deployment, verification/testing practices (SAST, DAST, dependency scanning, manual tests), and how to operationalise ASVS in CI/CD and engineering workflows to create a repeatable, risk-based security baseline.