GitHub says secret protection has to scale with software

Secret protection must scale with software

GitHub argues secret protection should keep pace with code growth and wired a new ModernBERT classifier into push protection to catch secrets without fixed patterns. From Q2 2024 to Q2 2026, screened pushes grew to 2.84 times and pushes carrying credentials grew to 2.59 times, while the share of pushes with a detected secret showed no statistically detectable trend.

Why it matters: GitHub compared code push volume with credential leak rates across nine quarters, giving scale context for moving secret protection from manual fixes to automatic prevention.