Applications act as gateways to a vast bank of user and company data. Due to their evolving nature, often as the product of a development lifecycle like DevOps or Agile, hackers turn toward applications and try to find vulnerabilities that the development lifecycle left behind.
To prevent breaches and secure application data, businesses must turn to the available application security tools currently on the market. The cybersecurity sector radically differs from where it was 10 years ago, with AppSec tools available for nearly every component and threat vector.
In this article, we’ll explore the most common and useful AppSec tools, touch on how to use these deployments effectively and demonstrate how you can maximize application security in your business.
Exploring AppSec Tools
The vast majority of applications, by nature, have certain vulnerabilities that developers must cover throughout the development lifecycle. When building applications, many teams will rely on legacy systems and components that may have existing vulnerabilities. Equally, the expansive attack surface of a modern application gives hackers the best possible chance to find a weak point to breach.
To protect against these possibilities, developers are increasingly turning to AppSec tools to cover various points of entry and provide enhanced monitoring of an application’s runtime.
Here are some of the most important application security tools to make note of:
● Web Application Firewall (WAF): WAF tools will monitor traffic that intends to interact with your application and identify malicious attack vectors.
● Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP): RASP will monitor the runtime state of your application and identify any malicious or suspicious behavior. It can even segment your application around suspicious code to ensure that zero-day vulnerabilities are neutralized before they cause any massive damage.
● Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) and Software Composition Analysis (SCA): SBOMs and SCA reports will help your business better understand what components are inside your application, extending to open-source software. This insight will help you respond to known vulnerabilities as quickly as possible and identify any third-party components that may be a security issue in the future.
● Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST): A late-stage security tool that will help to assess the state of an application and identify any suspicious changes in the runtime.
● Static Application Security Testing (SAST): Offers support to developers by helping to identify any code errors, syntax errors, or other problems with compiled code.
● Mobile Application Security Testing (MAST): Covers the mobile deployment of your application and checks for any mobile-specific vulnerabilities.
Employing these tools across an application and testing with them throughout the development lifecycle will help contribute to a stable and secure application.
Using AppSec Tools Effectively
With so many application security tools to choose from, it can be hard for an organization that’s new to the space to know where each applies and how to get the most from these tools. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet here, as every application has a different central function and systems that sustain it.
To best find the most effective course of action when it comes to using AppSec tools, your business must first start with a comprehensive threat assessment. Using your existing documentation of the components in your application and its active systems, pinpoint areas where you can do more extensive threat assessments.
Typically, an application will have a vast ecosystem that’s nearly impossible to survey quickly. To get around this, start with your most valuable assets and then work downward to ensure everything is secure.
If possible, integrating DevSecOps methodology will help with this process, as it will make application security a central concern throughout the development lifecycle. This reflects a larger consensus in the cybersecurity community to shift left to ensure that security testing remains an organic part of development.
Another important consideration to make when it comes to security tools is who has access to them and to what degree. While some tools are fairly harmless and could be used by any of your developers, others have a more direct insight into the data and functioning of your applications. Where possible, use permissions systems to reduce access and ensure that if hackers were to enter your application, their visibility would be as limited as possible.
Each security tool you employ in your application will require refinement and continuous monitoring. This reality is why DevSecOps approaches are so effective when attempting to create more secure applications, as monitoring and testing become part of the fabric of your applications.
In fact, in 2023, around 36% of businesses used DevSecOps practices, showing a sharp increase from the 2020 figure of 27%. This increase in usage demonstrates the extent to which DevSecOps, in tandem with application security tools, is becoming a go-to development strategy.
Securing Production Applications
Developing secure applications is easier today than it has ever been. With the diverse range of security solutions that organizations have at their disposal, ranging from runtime monitoring to perimeter defenses, any business can prioritize security to create applications with a high degree of cybersecurity defense.
While it may be tempting to look for state-of-the-art cybersecurity defenses to add to your application, it’s always a good idea to get the foundational technologies down first. Laying a foundation with tools like RASP, WAAP, and WAF will go a long way to securing your application and creating a safe environment for your developers.
Speaking of your developers, don’t overlook them as vital security tools. Offering extensive cybersecurity training will only accelerate the securing of your application and contribute to an impenetrable final application state.
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