Why Security Debt Is Different
Code debt compounds at the rate of development activity. Security debt compounds at the rate of attacker interest + vulnerability disclosure. A known CVE in your stack makes you a target — and the longer it's unpatched, the more likely it is to be exploited.
Remediation priority: critical CVEs within 24 hours, high within 7 days, medium within 30 days, low within 90 days. Every day past these thresholds, your risk increases exponentially.