Application security is the process of making apps more secure by finding, fixing, and enhancing the security of apps.
The faster and sooner in the software development process you can find and fix security issues, the safer your enterprise will be. Because everyone makes mistakes, the challenge is to find those mistakes in a timely fashion.
Given the importance of security, then, along with the changing conditions in which IT security must operate, what are best practices that IT organizations should pursue to meet their security responsibilities? Here are seven recommendations for application-focused security:
1. Treat infrastructure as unknown and insecure – As the corporate security measures may be inadequate, implementing application-level measures should be appropriate while assuming the applications will implement enough measures to suffice for complete security.Â
2. Apply security to each application component – Analyze each component to determine what security measures are appropriate for it. Certain components (e.g., program execution resources) will require intrusion detection/prevention systems over others. Therefore, firewall access should be constricted and appropriate traffic sources should only access application resources.
3. Automate installation and configuration of security components – The lengthy audit, recommendation, and installation processes that were acceptable in the past are inadequate for next-generation applications. While the move to automation is a challenge, most security organizations find the new approach an improvement.
4. Test implemented security measures – Penetration testing is a foundation for testing security and can provide valuable feedback on areas that need to be addressed. Trixter helps in testing these application security measures to identify security gaps that internal personnel might overlook.
5. Migrate nonstrategic applications to external SaaS offerings – One good way to reduce the work scope is to offload nonstrategic applications to someone like Trixter which enables them to focus their efforts on truly important applications.Â
6. Use cloud-based security products – Trixter helps the organization with two benefits: They do not require large capital investment to pay upfront license fees, and they do not necessitate IT staff to install and configure the products.
7. Focus on security monitoring – The new world of next-generation applications means many more resources must be tracked and protected. Configuring security settings to generate alerts is critical. Trixter provides an ongoing assessment and configuration updates, along with the use of tools to display security anomalies and send important alerts to staff so that security issues can be addressed immediately.
There is a new IT world emerging, and yesterday’s approach to security is incapable of performing its duties.
Only by moving to an updated approach to security can IT organizations uphold their responsibilities in a next-generation application era.
#StayCyberSafe
Shaunak Mody, Co-founder at Tixter Cyber Solutions.
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