Can Application Security Safeguard Your App From Unpredictable Vulnerabilities?

By Pravin Kad On Aug 9, 2023

Are you confident that your mobile app or website is secure enough to protect user data from cybercriminals? Let’s face it, in today’s digital age, it’s difficult to say when the attack will happen. To ensure app and data security we need reliable solutions like application security.

So, how secure is your application? Let’s dive into the world of application security and find out how leading players are contributing to protecting users’ data from the very beginning.

How Exactly Does Application Security Work?

Application security refers to security measures used at the application level to protect data or code included within the app from being stolen or hijacked. It contains security measures throughout the development and design of applications and also involves methods and approaches to protect apps after deployment.

Application security may involve hardware, software, and methods for identifying and mitigating security flaws. A router that blocks Internet users from viewing a computer’s IP address is one example of hardware application security.

However, application-level security controls, such as application firewalls, are usually integrated into the software to limit the actions that are allowed and prohibited.

These procedures can include things like an application security procedure with protocols like regular testing as below:

As part of the software development process, application developers perform application security testing to ensure that there are no security vulnerabilities in new or updated versions of software programs.
A security audit can ensure that the application meets certain criteria of security standards. After the application has passed the audit, developers must guarantee that it is only accessible to authorized users.
A developer performs penetration testing by thinking like a cybercriminal and looking for ways to break into the program.
Penetration testing may involve social engineering or deceiving users into granting unauthorized access.
In order to uncover security flaws that are not visible in either scenario, testers often conduct both unauthorized security scans and authenticated security scans (as logged-in users).

Common Types of Application Security Shielding Your Apps

The purpose of all types of application security is the same: to find, mitigate, and prevent vulnerabilities. The distinction between these forms lies in the location, manner, and timing of security testing, practices, and methodology.

● Mobile Applications Security

Mobile application security mainly focuses on the software security standards of mobile apps on various platforms like iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

It involves applications that run on smartphones and tablets, and it includes assessing applications for security issues in the context of the platforms on which they are designed to run, the frameworks with which they are developed, and the expected set of users (e.g., employees vs. end users).

Mobile application security testing involves putting a mobile app into the world of malicious users. Effective security testing starts with a thorough understanding of the application’s purpose and the data types it manages. Then, a mix of static analysis, dynamic analysis, and penetration testing is utilized to uncover vulnerabilities that would otherwise go undetected if the approaches were not employed effectively together.

All of us are familiar with the Google Play platform, where we download a variety of applications for Android phones. With Google Play Protect‘s built-in malware defense, mobile app security begins at the application layer. It is constantly evolving and improving, thanks to Google’s machine learning. Google Play Protect proactively scans all apps on Android phones every day and strives to prevent the download of malicious apps, making it the world’s most widely deployed mobile threat protection service.

● Web Application Security

Web application security is the method of fortifying websites to function normally even when they are under attack. It consists of a set of security rules that are built into a web application to protect its assets from potentially harmful agents.

Web applications, like most software, contain flaws. To protect the app from such defects, Microsoft has developed Azure App Service that helps secure a web app, mobile app back end, API app, and function app. Its built-in App Service capabilities ensure the app and saved data are secure.

App service constantly goes through vigorous compliance checks to address vulnerabilities and provide 24-hour threat management to shield the infrastructure and platform against malware, man-in-the-middle (MITM), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), and other threats.

● Cloud Application Security

Cloud application security is a group of policies, processes, and controls that allow businesses to safeguard applications and data in collaborative cloud environments. Key activities in cloud security include identifying and managing access, data protection, infrastructure security, logging and monitoring, incident response, vulnerability mitigation, and configuration analysis.

Breakthrough Innovations Reshaping Application Security

Application security has garnered much traction in recent years, with companies adopting various strategies that are further positively impacting the product landscape. Here are the most recent innovations in application security:

1. AI-First Security Cloud

Tech leader Cisco has devised the AI-driven Cisco Security Cloud to streamline cybersecurity and entrust people to do their best work from anywhere, regardless of the increasingly intricate threat landscape. It launched Secure Access, its novel SSE (Secure Service Edge) solution, which is designed to enhance hybrid work experiences and facilitate access for any device, location, and application.

Highlights of Cisco Secure Access include:

Common Access Experience: Provides a unique, easy way to access all applications and resources by intelligently and securely driving traffic to private and public destinations without end-user intervention.
Single, Cloud-Managed Console: Offers simple security operations by combining multiple functions into one easy-to-use solution that safeguards all traffic.
Faster Detection & Response: Delivers Cisco Talos AI-backed threat intelligence to detect and block threats. It also identifies and remediates threats and manages policy across their security environment.

2. Noname and IBM

The collaboration between Noname Security and IBM will integrate technologies and commercial skills to secure their customers’ appliances. According to the deal, IBM agreed to carry out the promotion and sales of the Noname Advanced API Security platform as part of its product portfolio, offering its customers even more advanced and reliable solutions.

Noname’s API security solution has integrated with IBM’s DataPower and API Connect solutions to provide benefits to IBM clients in a variety of ways, including the detection of unmanaged APIs, the identification of configuration issues such as APIs that lack mandatory authentication, and the blocking of API attacks, to mention a few.

Noname’s association with IBM will strengthen the security of several applications such as mobile, critical infrastructure, IoT, and even other security apps.

3. Cisco Systems Enhancement in Cloud App Security

While Cisco is known for networking, the company also continues to invest in hybrid multi-cloud and security cloud. After the AI-First Security Cloud, Cisco recently announced advancements to its cloud-native application security offering Panoptica.

Panoptica will provide comprehensive cloud-native application lifecycle security in dispersed multi-cloud environments, from code to development to production runtime. This collaboration is beneficial and once again promotes the hybrid-multi-cloud model.

Meanwhile, Cisco Secure Access is a security service edge (SSE) solution that offers safe access to information from any location, device, or application via a single platform.

On the hardware front, Cisco’s new Secure Firewall 4200, alongside Cisco Multicloud Defence, enables seamless connected experiences for end users at the office or on the road, with the goal of improving security in any scenario.

4. VMware’s Web Application Security

The complete, software-defined application services platform of VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer delivers an extensive web application security architecture, including bot management, ACL, DDoS mitigation, load balancing, SSL/TLS encryption, and application rate limitation.

These cloud services deliver fresh threat updates, such as IP reputation, CRS signatures, bot detection, and more, while curtailing false positives with sophisticated application security detection, analytics, and enforcement modes for detecting common application flaws.

The firm’s NSX Advanced Load Balancer offers an optimized security pipeline to boost the efficiency of traditionally resource-intensive activities. The VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer provides actionable information on performance, end-user interactions, and security events in a single dashboard with end-to-end visibility, thanks to real-time app security insights and analytics.

Wrapping Up

Application security is a critical aspect of any digital platform that aims to build trust with its users and keep their data safe from cyber attackers. The rise of cybersecurity threats reinforces the need for proactive measures and continuous monitoring and testing of their applications for vulnerabilities.

The importance of application security cannot be overstated as it can impact an organization’s reputation, financial stability, and legal liabilities. Therefore, investing in application security is a smart business decision and a moral obligation to protect users’ data and maintain their trust.