Software teams rarely question the building blocks they reuse every day. Once a component runs reliably, it tends to stay in place, even as teams lose track of how it was assembled or what it includes.

Twenty years ago, cybersecurity was a slower game. Firewalls and signature databases were enough to keep most attackers out. Threats, for the most part, moved predictably. Updates were scheduled, and downtime was expected.

A software bill of materials (SBOMs) has been touted as a critical tool in solving software supply-chain security issues, but the rapid change of software ecosystems and the complexity of creating an end-to-end verified chain of code continue to foil widespread adoption.

Containers have become the building blocks of modern software. Teams pull millions of images from public registries every day to move faster, often with little review before they reach production.

With AI-built clean images and a growing global presence, Bengaluru-based cybersecurity startup CleanStart aims to secure the software supply chain before threats ever reach production.

The reliability of modern business rests on a digital infrastructure that few organisations build alone. Most depend on open-source libraries, vendor images, and shared components that often carry a long history of flaws.