Why Application Security should be your top priority and what you can do about it?

Web or mobile applications are ruling our lives. From paying utility bills, playing games, and browsing on social media to booking movie and airline tickets and receiving news-feeds, applications are here to stay. According to statistics, the annual downloads of applications in the year 2020 is likely to touch 258 billion (Source: app-scoop.com). What does this imply? Our lives are going to be increasingly driven by digital applications. These bring in their wake attributes like convenience, ease of navigation, speedy delivery, and security, among others. However, the last one, ‘security’, has turned out to be a challenge of sorts with cyber threats growing incessantly.

Today, cyber threats have assumed menacing proportions with alarming consequences - for individuals, enterprises, and governments alike. These have evolved with advanced technologies and the propensity of users to remain indifferent. Cyber threats are just lurking behind the IT infrastructure waiting to exploit the built-in vulnerabilities. So, how does one remain vigilant and preempt such an eventuality? The answer lies in conducting a robust and time-bound application security testing. It ensures the timely detection of any vulnerability, breach, or risk, thereby allowing the organization to mitigate it.

It is not that only a certain size or kind of business becomes a victim of cybercrime. Everyone using the digital ecosystem is vulnerable. So, as we go about expanding our digital capabilities, we must also lay equal emphasis on strengthening the security framework. This can be done by conducting routine software application security testing in the SDLC. Further, as the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution slowly but steadily envelops the digital landscape, there is a concurrent increase in cybersecurity scare. The biggest challenge to have emerged is identifying the weak nodes among the billions of interconnected IoT devices.

Planning and running an application security testing exercise can have challenges (and vulnerabilities) such as:

l  Presence of threats like SQL injections and cross-site scripting

l  Lack of a proper strategy for application security testing

l  Not using the right dynamic application security testing tools

l  Inadequate tracking of the test progress

l  Reduced scope of testing due to the pressure of time and speed

l  Inability to build the right team and plan

l  Failure to adhere to the established security protocols

l  Absence of an application inventory. The same would have tracked expired SSL certificates, mobile APIs, and added domains, among others

How to build a robust application security testing methodology

The threat from hackers is real as enterprises have become wary of falling prey to their shenanigans. Statistically, cybercrime is expected to cost a global loss of around $6 trillion annually by 2021 (Source: Annual Cybercrime Report of Cybersecurity Ventures.) Also, hackers have been found to attack every 39 seconds or 2,244 times a day on an average as per a survey by the University of Maryland. Hence, web and mobile application security testing should be accorded the highest priority. Let us understand the process to build an effective strategy.

# Analyze the software development process: Many-a-times the processes drawn for building software can have gaps or weak links. These can bring a smile on the faces of hackers. Thus, testers should scrutinize or analyze the development cycle to identify the gaps or vulnerabilities.

# Create a threat model: Post analyzing the development process, prepare a threat model to understand the data flow through the application. This way, testers can identify the problem areas or defective locations in the process.

# Automate: The testing of applications comprises steps that are iterative in nature. These mundane tasks can tie human resources, which otherwise could have been used to execute other critical tasks. So, to improve efficiency and better identification of glitches, the testing process should be automated. By running automated test scripts, testers and developers can examine the source code to identify vulnerabilities. Thereafter, the same can be mitigated before actual deployment.

# Manual testing not to be dispensed with: Even though manual testing receives a lot of flak when it comes to the identification of errors, they can be effective as well. This is due to the fact that automated tools working on a script can miss certain errors that are not accounted for in the script. This is where manual testing can help by leveraging human expertise.

# Fixing metrics: The vulnerabilities in an application can only be ascertained when the features and functionalities are tested against a set of metrics. These help enterprises to focus on specific areas and improve risk management.

Conclusion

Cyber threats have emerged as key concerns for enterprises or organizations. They can have damaging consequences when it comes to factors like trust and customer experience. By undertaking static or dynamic application security testing, enterprises can address such issues and truly harness the benefits of an advanced digital ecosystem.