Corporate enterprises heavily rely on web applications to connect with their customer base. While these applications provide an expansive platform to showcase and sell products or services online, their substantial usage without sufficient security measures has opened a gateway for potential hackers. This highlights the crucial need for application security testing services to address and mitigate these vulnerabilities.
Securing web applications is crucial and should be a priority in the initial phases of project development. However, developers frequently neglect this for various reasons. The emphasis on creative designs, visual appeal, and time constraints often leads to compromises in securing web applications. In such instances, developers allocate less time to safeguarding the security of these applications, which can have implications for their resilience and protection against potential threats.
How to Secure Web Application for Your Business?
Safeguarding web applications is vital, and incorporating effective strategies is paramount for comprehensive application security testing. Arm your business with the following best practices in web application security to establish a robust defence against potential vulnerabilities:
- Establishing robust authentication and authorization protocols is the initial defence layer for every web application. Assessing the efficiency of your user authentication process and access control mechanisms is crucial.
- Overlooking a single input field can result in a significant security breach, jeopardizing sensitive data and damaging reputation. Scrutinize how your application manages user inputs to mitigate vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and XSS.
- Evaluating the deployment of secure communication protocols like HTTPS/SSL/TLS is crucial. It ensures that the data exchanged between your web application and users stays encrypted, safeguarding against potential eavesdropping risks.
- Session management assesses how your application handles user sessions, focusing on elements such as session timeouts, preventing session fixation, and utilizing secure session identifiers.
How to Improve Application Security?
Explore the top strategies to improve web application security and fortify your digital presence against potential attackers.
Conduct a Comprehensive Security Audit
A security audit involves assessing an organization’s security infrastructure, policies, and procedures to identify vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and potential threats to its information assets, physical assets, and personnel. The main objective of a security audit is to determine the efficacy of existing security measures, identify security gaps and weaknesses, and propose enhancements to mitigate potential security risks.
A comprehensive security audit evaluates an organization’s security controls across various dimensions:
- Reviewing the security of applications and software involves assessing the security patches implemented by system administrators.
- Evaluating network vulnerabilities encompasses analyzing public and private access points and firewall configurations.
- Examining the human dimension involves scrutinizing how employees collect, share, and store sensitive information.
- Assessing the organization’s security strategy includes thoroughly examining security policies and risk assessments.
Implementing Secure Coding Practices
By adopting secure coding practices, developers can substantially reduce the risk of security vulnerabilities like cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, or buffer overflows. It encompasses implementing measures such as thorough input validation, output encoding, and effective error-handling practices, contributing to a secure development environment.
Here are some essential secure coding tools you should consider incorporating into the development process:
Here are some essential secure coding tools you should consider incorporating into the development process:
- Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools analyze source code in apps and APIs for potential vulnerabilities early in development.
- Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tools test apps and APIs for possible vulnerabilities while they are running.
- Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) tools monitor apps and APIs to identify and address vulnerabilities without delaying development.
- Dependency scanning tools assist in identifying and managing vulnerabilities present in third-party libraries and components utilized within applications.
HCL AppScan offers these application security solutions to discover vulnerabilities for quick remediation. 98% reduction in false positives for SAST and 91% accuracy in reporting critical vulnerabilities during DAST scans.
Utilizing Web Application Firewalls (WAFs)
Unsecured web applications are frequently targeted by attackers with distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. In such instances, multiple web applications are hijacked to overwhelm a specific target with traffic, providing attackers easier access to sensitive information. To mitigate these threats, organizations should implement Web Application Firewalls. WAFs actively monitor incoming traffic, filtering harmful requests before they reach the application server. WAFs are an additional barrier between potential attackers and applications, lowering the risk of unauthorized access and blocking malicious traffic.
Implementing Multifactor Authentication (MFA)
MFA is a robust security approach involving multiple layers of verification for accessing applications, accounts, or corporate networks. For instance, users may undergo additional verification steps after entering a password, such as entering a one-time code received via text message or confirming their sign-in through an authentication app on their mobile device. Ensuring the security of the network goes beyond relying on a single tool. Adopting a multi-layered approach to cybersecurity is crucial. It involves having backup components for every facet of the cybersecurity plan, effectively countering any potential flaws or gaps that cybercriminals may attempt to exploit to breach your network.
Regularly Update and Patch Applications
Maintaining current software versions and effective patch management are crucial to preventing cyberattacks. Operating on the latest software releases enables organizations to benefit from new features and improvements while effectively protecting against security vulnerabilities. Organizations must identify all the software within their infrastructure to implement regular updates and patch management, including operating systems, applications, and other programs. Organizations should establish a schedule for monitoring updates and applying patches to ensure their systems’ security and optimal performance.
Conclusion
Web apps have rapidly become the top choice for businesses to start and grow their digital presence. Cyber threats develop, and the necessity for strong security measures has never been greater. It is where HCLSoftware emerges as an excellent partner in the battle against malicious actors and vulnerabilities.
With HCL AppScan, developers, DevOps teams, and security professionals gain access to a suite of technologies to identify application security vulnerabilities throughout the software development lifecycle. Protect the business and customers by utilizing web application security testing tools, centralized visibility and oversight, and flexible deployment options such as on-premises, on-cloud, and cloud-native.
HCL AppScan offers best-in-class application security testing tools to ensure that businesses and customers are not vulnerable to attacks. HCL AppScan on Cloud (ASoC) is a SaaS solution that addresses all application security testing requirements. It combines HCL Security’s testing capabilities into a single solution that provides a consistent experience across all technologies. HCL Security AppScan on Cloud can scan web, mobile, and desktop apps using dynamic and static techniques.
Try HCL AppScan today to scan apps using security testing tools, including SAST and DAST, for web and open-source software.
