Best Application Security Solutions

All applications have security flaws. No app is perfect. The faster and sooner in the development process you can find and fix these flaws, the better off your enterprise will be.

With today’s continuous deployment and integration of applications, apps are being updated and refined constantly. This means that security tools need to keep the pace, finding issues with code much faster than they did in the past.

Interestingly enough, as new applications continue to come out, new vulnerabilities are constantly introduced. We are actually creating many of the tools that cybercriminals use against us and building them right into our applications.

Your organization needs an application security program in order to ensure that as your apps are developed and managed, they are secure and are not opening your company up to attack.

There are four main reasons why application security is important:

1. Securing sensitive information - This is a major concern for most people, which is why it should be important to your organization.
2. Preventing potential attacks - Find the vulnerabilities before the hackers do.
3. Improving your reputation - Businesses that excel at application security have reported increased sales, higher consumer loyalty, and better reputations.
4. Efficiency - Integrating application security tools into your development settings can ultimately simplify your workflow.

One of the reasons apps are such a popular target is because organizations are not careful enough about securing them. In fact, 79% of developers have an ineffective application security process or none at all. While businesses spend billions securing their hardware, network, and perimeter, they are not investing sufficiently in the security of their applications.

You need to secure your apps because:

1. Your applications are inextricably tied to the success of your business. Insecure applications equal an insecure business.

2. Most, if not all, apps are vulnerable. According to a report by Veracode, 70% of all applications they looked at had at least one of the top 10 web vulnerabilities.

3. Apps are the number one attack target and attacks against them are growing by more than 25% per year.

4. You can’t afford not to. Data breaches cost businesses around the world hundreds of millions of dollars. If you experience a data breach, you will have to deal with:

• Lost revenue due to stolen data, lower sales, or falling stock prices.
• The price of investigation and cleanup
• The cost of downtime. Every hour of downtime can cost you $100,000.
• Long-term damage to your brand reputation

RASP is a technology that is designed to detect attacks on an application in real time. When an application begins to run, RASP kicks in and analyzes the app’s behavior as well as the context of that behavior in order to identify threats that might have been overlooked by other security solutions..

RASP operates on the server the app is running on, and can protect both web and non-web apps. It makes sure that all calls from the application to the system are secure and directly validates data requests inside the app.

When a security event occurs, RASP takes control of the app. It can be set to diagnostic mode, in which case an alarm will alert the IT department that there is a problem. Or it can be set to protection mode, in which case it will try to stop the event by preventing the execution of an app or terminating the user’s session.

The application layer is the number one attack surface for hackers - 84% of cyber attacks occur on the application layer. You should be building security into the software development life cycle (SDLC). Below are four best practices for secure application development:

1. Use software composition analysis (SCA) to find open source components during the development stages of an app. This way you know exactly what’s in your code.
2. Know how your applications will be deployed and incorporate that information into your threat models. Your strategies will vary depending on how the app is going to be used.
3. There are all kinds of tools for software security testing, including RASP (runtime application security testing), DAST (dynamic application security testing), SAST (static application security testing), IAST (interactive application security testing), and penetration testing. Know your tools and use them appropriately.
4. Security shouldn’t be an afterthought. Create security requirements. Build security into the development process.

Implementing Application Security Tools early in your development lifecycle helps you identify vulnerabilities before they reach production. These tools integrate with your CI/CD pipelines, allowing for continuous scanning and testing of your code. Addressing security issues during development reduces the cost and impact of vulnerabilities, leading to a more efficient and secure software development process.

When selecting Application Security Tools, look for features such as scalability, support for multiple programming languages, integration capabilities with existing development workflows, and real-time vulnerability scanning. User-friendly dashboards and detailed reporting can also enhance your team’s ability to monitor and manage security risks effectively. Ensuring that the tool can automatically update to address new threats is crucial for maintaining robust security.

Application Security Tools assist in meeting compliance requirements by providing automated scanning that uncovers vulnerabilities that could lead to non-compliance. They often include pre-configured policies aligned with standards like OWASP, PCI DSS, or GDPR. By generating detailed reports, these tools help you document compliance activities and demonstrate your security posture to auditors and stakeholders.

Common challenges include ensuring seamless integration with existing systems, overcoming resistance from development teams, and managing the complexity of tool setup. Organizations may struggle with finding tools that fit their specific requirements or budget. Training and support are critical to overcoming these hurdles, ensuring that teams can quickly adapt and fully leverage the tools' potential.

Automated scanning tools provide quick and consistent identification of common vulnerabilities across large codebases. They are efficient in flagging issues like SQL injections or cross-site scripting. However, manual code reviews are necessary for understanding the context and business logic vulnerabilities that automated tools might miss. Combining both methods offers a more comprehensive approach to application security.