Application Security - An Ultimate Guide

Forrester13,319 vulnerabilities were detected in 2019 in just 1,607 applications

Application Security has emerged as a blessing for the Software Development industry, where it not only accelerates the process of protecting computer applications from external security threats but also improves the infrastructure of the applications. As a result, the software industry is experiencing a rapid increase in the volume of application security practices to ensure safety.

In this article, we'll be discussing everything about Application Security, starting from what it is.

What is Application Security?

In order to understand application security from scratch, one should learn about every bit of application development and security systems.

In simple terms, application security is the practice of adding features or functionality to software to protect against various attacks. The main basis of application security is to protect data and identify defects in software applications that can cause the loss of important data or data breaches in a company.

It includes software, hardware, measures, and procedures that detect or reduce security susceptibility. Now various applications have adopted the idea of inbuilt security applications as it continues along with the development process, where scanning tools can help automate security and improve the entire application's functionality by rectifying the flaws side by side.

Why is Application Security Important?

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This means security-related issues have become a common problem. However, if an application becomes a victim of any malicious attack, it can have a significant effect on the parent company.

Here are a few reasons why application security matters to businesses:

Types of Application Security

During the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), various app security methods protect the app against critical and non-critical cyber threats for a defect-free final output.

Various types of application security will let you understand the exact purpose of every security application.

Authentication

As the name suggests, this app security ensures that only users with authorized credentials can access the application. Through this, no hackers can access the application as the server authenticates users through a username and password, fingerprints, facial recognition, and retinal scans.

Authorization

Basically, authentication and authorization are interlinked as it safeguards sensitive data from being seen or utilized by a cybercriminal after a user has been authorized and is using the application. The system holds a list of authorized users through which it can validate that a user has permission to access the application by comparing the user's identity.

Encryption

Once a user is authenticated and has started to use the application, some security measures can help to protect crucial data from being used or even seen by hackers. So in cloud-based applications where traffic with sensitive data has to travel between the cloud and the end user, the traffic can be encrypted to keep the sensitive information away from cyber criminals.

Logging

We commonly notice time stamps with location emails in our mailbox for various app logins. This helps app users to know whether any breach has happened with their credentials. Application log files track which areas of the application have been accessed and by whom.

Application Security Testing

This is the foremost type of app security as it ensures that all the applied security controls are working correctly and providing maximum protection against cyber threats.

What is Application Security Testing?

It's an "elephant in the room" kind of fact that cyberattacks have become more frequent in the past few years. Most of us take precautions, but none of us can say how capable those precautions are to keep our system safe online.

To check for possible hitches, security experts use several techniques. These techniques can be defined as a single term, 'Testing'.

Application Security Testing is the procedure of identifying all the cyber threats and vulnerabilities. This process works by combining many application security tools.

AST plays a very important role in the competitive IT sector. If testing is done well, this can prevent cyber attacks on the applications, thus leading to a better user experience.

The three steps to perform application security testing can be defined as follows:

Challenges of Application Security

As competition increases, many applications are being launched without proper testing and security measures. Organizations launch applications on platforms such as mobile, desktop, and web, which give attackers multiple options.

Hence, numerous challenges occur while we try to secure our application. In order to prevent threats, one must consider the below-mentioned challenges or risks:

Code injections

The name defines attackers as injecting malicious code into the application to loot the data, propagate a virus, or perform any other malicious activities. One such injection is SQL injection. In such injections, the hacker inserts an SQL statement into an application to read or modify database information.

DDoS Attacks

Abbreviated as Distributed Denial of Service Attacks, the number of attacking systems in a DDOS attack is multiple, sending a large volume of traffic to the target system at once. Identifying the source of a DDOS attack is very difficult since there are multiple systems. The organization needs to monitor the attacks in real-time to create secure applications.

Malicious Bots

Hackers use bots to take over computer systems. You can say they zombify computers through bots to form a network. And with the help of the host computers, they can carry out a much bigger malicious attack.

It is crucial to identify the bad bots as they are the ones that perform malicious activities in opposition to the good bots. The threats they perform can include DDoS attacks, the propagation of viruses into the systems, and more. You may have noticed that CAPTCHAs are used to identify humans.

Top Application Security Trends You Must Know

With time, cybersecurity is gaining tremendous growth in software development and providing security against critical and non-critical threats. While building an application, developers must consider these application security trends for a successful and threat-free application.

Security Champions

Building an efficient and productive security champion team is always a plus for any software technology firm. They act as a communicator between development teams and security teams that uplifts and promotes the security of the applications.

Security Automation

According to the modern application security trend, companies expect all the testing not to be performed manually; hence, security automation is widely used. With the help of security automation, application testing can be done throughout the application's development cycle.

Threat Modeling

The trend of threat modeling is among the ongoing trends in application security. Understanding the application to identify the security requirement of the application. It is a systematic process to find potential threats to minimize IT risks.

Best Practices for Application Security

There are several factors an app developer must adhere to provide security to the application. A systematic approach and a wide pointers checklist can be prepared, which may include security training for the developers, assets should be well known to the creators, risk assessment, and more.

Application security is a continuous process, not a one-time activity. Hence, the developers should do audits and tests regularly to keep up the application's security. Below are some practices that can be used while creating a security application.

Risks identification

If not taken care of sensitive data, it's critical to assess your app inventory to identify the ones susceptible to security breaches. To complete this stage, you must look at the app security measures already in place. Applications that shouldn't be utilized to process high-risk data should be labeled low-risk applications.

Use Secure Code

Best practices for app security are put into practice once an app is coded.

Cybercriminals frequently use bugs and vulnerabilities to access an application. They attempt to change your code using an open version of your application.

Make the application difficult to exploit to stop the attacks. Harden your code while considering operating system & framework weaknesses.

Encrypt Your Data

Data encryption ensures the safety of the data shared between the user and the application. Data encryption includes de-structuring data gradually so it cannot be utilized improperly, even if a third party receives it.

Best Application Security Tools in 2022

Application Security Tools are exceptionally important for applications as they allow developers to test applications before the final implementation and to understand the real challenges.

Now, when several cybercriminals are looking for an opportunity to plunder your network, system, and database to extort you, there are also concrete solutions to save you. There are many application security tools, but some of them are explained below:

Best Software Composition Analysis Tool

Scantist

The role of open-source components in application development is increasing every day, and using malicious open-source code can lead to major security issues. That's why it's important to use a powerful software composition analysis tool that can help you identify open-source vulnerabilities and recommend patches.

Scantist

Scantist SCA compares the open-source and third-party components found

in applications against their own proprietary database of vulnerabilities to

identify vulnerabilities in different phases of the Software Development Life

Cycle (SDLC).

This, in turn, helps developers to build a secure application without slowing down the development pipeline.

Best Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Tools

Vega Vulnerability Scanner

Vega is a popular application security tool that can be practiced for scanning all the vulnerabilities in the app. It's a free and open-source scanner and a testing platform to test the security of web applications. It helps you to find and validate SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other vulnerabilities.

GitLab

GitLab is an all-inclusive open-source DevOps platform that is provided as a single application and has the potential to alter the way Development, Security fundamentally, and Ops teams communicate and create software. GitLab assists teams in cutting costs associated with the development process and accelerating time to market while reducing cycle times from weeks to minutes.

Metasploit

It is the most popular penetration testing framework in the world. Metasploit is an open-source network security software that enables security teams to do more than just organize security assessments and find vulnerabilities.

Best Dynamic Application Security Testing Tool

Invicti

Invicti, formerly known as Netsparker, is a comprehensive security assessment tool that includes web vulnerability scanning, assessment, and management. The highlight of the tool is that it has a unique asset discovery technology and integration with best-in-industry issue management and CI/CD solutions.

Final Thoughts

With the alarming number of threats in the cyber world faced by software companies, the techniques and strategies to implement application security are continuously updating. However, these application security tools and trends are also causing budget increases in the annual expenditure of the companies. In such scenarios, companies can consider both manual and automated testing, whichever is suitable per the application requirement.

Encapsulating the need and importance of application security, we cannot foresee the future without the implementation of application security in the development of applications.

Scantist

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