WHY BUSINESSES

NEED APPLICATION
SECURITY
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APP SECURITY ESSENTIALS

Today, businesses cannot run without applications that allow customers to instantly interact
with the applications they have at their fingertips. Customers want apps that perform perfectly
every time they’re used.

Web application exploits continue to be the most common form of external attack. In a recent
survey on application security conducted by Forrester Research, 39% of companies reported they
were victims of a data security breach as a result of web application exploits.

To improve a company’s ability to shield itself, application security must constantly evolve to
protect against data breaches and the latest web application threats. Application security can help
avoid the potential negative business outcomes and instead focus on what matters:

Reduce risks of security infiltration

Protect brand image

Safeguard data against major and minor breaches

Eliminate loss of revenue

Avoid expensive downtime

Address security and quality defects early

Improve trust from customers/investors/lenders

The Verizon 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report indicates that cloud-based data is
continually a target for cybercrime, with web application attacks doubling to 43% in less than a year.

This article provides an overview of why businesses need application security.

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WHAT IS APPLICATION SECURITY TESTING?
Application security testing is designed to protect software applications from external threats throughout
the entire application life cycle. One of the main goals of application security testing is to protect the
confidentiality of data within the application.

A web application attack is defined as any attempt by a malicious party to infiltrate and compromise the
security of a web-based application. Attacks may either target the application itself to gain access to
sensitive data or use the application as a foundation to launch attacks against users.

Attackers can use many different paths to get to your application with the ultimate goal of harming your
organization. Each of these potential attacks represents a risk serious enough to warrant attention.

To guard against vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit, testing all your applications with basic
vulnerability scanning throughout the entire software development life cycle is a necessity. This timeline
encompasses the application life cycle through early requirements analysis, design, implementation,
verification, and maintenance.

ASSESSING RISKS
Performing an initial security assessment should always be the first step to improving your company’s
security. This includes an application security code review, which is the manual review of source code
with the developers to identify code-level issues that may enable an attacker to compromise an application,
system, or business functionality.

To identify possible software and security vulnerabilities across all your web applications, a complete
risk assessment should be performed. A risk assessment can reveal the most valuable IT assets at your
company, the probability of an exploit, and the potential impact of a data breach on customers and the
company itself.

This process is crucial because it’s necessary to know the value of the information that may be
compromised. This in-depth assessment can be performed by an in-house IT or security team.
The assessment can also come from purchased external security tools that can come into play the
moment a security breach is detected.

When effective testing methods are used to secure web applications, vulnerabilities in the source
code or weaknesses in external software can be detected, remedied, and acted upon before the
software is deployed.

DEVSECOPS PRACTICE
DevOps is the incorporation of tools and practices that strengthen a company’s capacity to deliver
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applications and services at high speed. This practice leads to developing and enhancing products at
a faster pace than traditional software development.

It makes sense to develop a security operations process (DevSecOps) that includes both operational teams
and creates security testing methods that can monitor applications daily. These methods can include:
 Dynamic application security testing (DAST). Improves the detection of gaps and security
vulnerabilities by changing the perspective of managers and placing them in the role of an
attacker or hacker. This focuses on the behavioral testing of applications.

Static application security testing (SAST). By inspecting the static source code of an
application locally, vulnerabilities can be identified to reveal possible weaknesses in the
system’s internal operations.

Software composition analysis. Manages the use of open-source solutions by performing

automated scans of an application’s codebase.

Runtime application self-protection. Uses real-time application data to catch and kill
attacks as they occur.

Interactive application security testing. Combines DAST and SAST to use software to
monitor application performance. It supports finding a broader range of security
weaknesses in order to provide important information on the root cause of vulnerabilities,
particularly specific lines of problematic code.

THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH WEAK

APPLICATION SECURITY
Applications are a primary target for attackers, and threats to applications have become one of the
most significant risks to business success. Consistently guarding against attacks can be challenging
for security teams.

The risks to companies have never been greater. Despite the well-known and well-publicized security
and data breaches that severely impact businesses on every level, web application exploits and attacks
continue to occur every day, damaging some businesses beyond repair due to the loss of revenue and
customer trust.

Developers, security teams, IT departments, and web companies must create a plan to ward off
cyberthreats and attackers. Without a security solution in place, your company’s web applications may
succumb to the torrent of attacks and threats they continually face.

These attacks can include not only malicious code and vulnerability scanning, but also penetration testing
(pen testing), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, SQL injection attacks, buffer overflow, and more.
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The global cost of online crime is expected to reach $6 trillion by 2021, with the average cost of a data
breach amounting to $3.92 million.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BREACH OCCURS
When a threat is detected at your company, what happens next? What safety rules are in place and
immediately available when a breach occurs? Who is accountable for web-based attacks and responsible
for security testing? What protocol has your company implemented in the event of anattack?

These are important questions for your company’s DevOps and DevSecOps teams. A strong security
stance means you have the requisite means in place to protect your web applications from vulnerabilities
and threats.

DETECTED VULNERABILITIES
A powerful security solution, whether created in-house or purchased externally, can and most likely will
protect against an attack at some point in the life cycle of the application. Dynamic and static application
security testing helps detect and identify vulnerabilities by examining code locally and in the process of
deployment.

Uninitialized variables Insufficient binary protection

Application misconfiguration Cross-site scripting
Credential/session prediction Injection attacks
Directory indexing Interprocess communication
Insufficient authorization/authentication OS commanding
Automatic reference counting Insecure cryptography
Cross-site request forgery SQL injection
Information leakage Cryptographic related attacks
Insufficient transport layer protection Buffer overrun
Free non-heap variable Format string vulnerability
Double free/close Return pointer to local

These may include a range of varying web application exploits and application vulnerabilities, including:
Cyberthreats Enabled by Poor App Security
Every phase of a company’s application system is a potential target for hackers. Web and mobile
applications now represent a significant portion of a company’s vulnerability. For example, an app on an
employee’s cell phone with a connection to your network can become an open door for hackers. Whether
you are creating apps for in-house use, buying apps for employee use, or selling apps, security is a critical
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step in the process.

Different industries are vulnerable to selected cyberthreats. For example, in 2020 in the retail industry,
99% of incidents were financially motivated, with payment data and personal credentials continuing to
be prized. Web applications, rather than point-of-sale devices, are now the main focus of retail breaches.
For the financial and insurance industries, 30% of breaches were caused by web application attacks,
primarily driven by external actors using stolen credentials to get access to sensitive data stored in the
cloud. The move to online services is a key factor in generating the increased interest in these attacks.

A Facebook incident recently leaked information for half a billion users. Numerous sources disclosed
the discovery of a pool of Facebook records, including information on more than 530 million users.
The leaked data included personal information and was posted to a known website for hackers.

Once breaches emerge, they cannot be recalled or canceled, so it is essential for businesses to take a
pre-emptive approach to security-forward designs, implementation, and testing prior to release.

COMMON TYPES OF
WEB APPLICATION EXPLOITS
MALWARE
Malware describes malicious software, including viruses, spyware, worms, and ransomware. When a user
clicks an infected link or email attachment, malware can breach a network through a vulnerability not
discovered by security teams. Malware can do the following once it is inside a system:

Block admittance to key parts of the network (in the form of ransomware)

Obtain sensitive information and transmit that data from the hard drive without the user’s
knowledge or awareness (as spyware)

Install harmful software into the system

Disrupt certain components to render the system inoperable

PHISHING
Phishing starts with a fraudulent email or other communication that is intended to entice a victim to
provide sensitive information. The communication appears to have come from a highly reliable source or
an application that the victim either frequently uses or has used at least once in the past. The victim is
manipulated into providing confidential information, such as login and password credentials or credit card
numbers, often through a scam website.
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FORM-JACKING
This is a type of attack where cybercriminals inject malicious JavaScript code into a targeted application
or the form page of a website to take over the functionality of the page and covertly collect sensitive user
information. It is most often targeted to a payment page form, where the data can be collected and reused
or sold for nefarious purposes.
MAN-IN-THE-MIDDLE ATTACK
Sometimes referred to as eavesdropping attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks occur when hackers insert
themselves between a device and the network it seeks to access. Once the hackers interrupt online access,
they can steal data, including Social Security numbers, addresses, credit card data, and confidential
banking information.

This is standard practice on unsecured public Wi-Fi connections when, without knowing, the victim passes
all information through the attacker. In addition to stealing sensitive information, once the breach has
occurred, an attacker can install malware to process all of the victim’s information.

DISTRIBUTED DENIAL-OF-SERVICE ATTACK

Using the DDoS method, a hacker can flood networks, servers, or systems with enough heavy traffic to drain
resources and bandwidth. When the application or system is unable to fulfill rightful requests, it becomes
vulnerable to infiltration. Multiple compromised devices can be used to launch this attack.

SQL INJECTION
In what sounds like a complicated process, an attacker could carry out a SQL injection attack simply
by presenting malicious code into a defenseless website search box. Malicious code can be inserted
by an attacker into a server that uses a structured query language (SQL). It forces that server to reveal
information that under normal circumstances would be protected.

ZERO-DAY EXPLOIT
Before a patch or solution can be implemented, a zero-day exploit swoops in after a network vulnerability
is announced. During this window of time, attackers target the disclosed vulnerability in hopes of
gaining information.

CREDENTIAL STUFFING
Credential stuffing is a cyberattack method where attackers use lists of compromised or stolen user
credentials to breach into a system. These lists usually contain email IDs or usernames (thousands to
millions) along with matching passwords and are used to gain illegal access to real user accounts using bots
for automation and scale. It is based on the theory that many users reuse usernames and passwords across
multiple devices and services.
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HOW TO ENHANCE APPLICATION SECURITY
MAKE SECURITY ASSESSMENT YOUR TOP PRIORITY
As noted earlier, assessing risk should always be the first step to improving your comprehensive security
methods. A risk assessment serves to reveal the most valuable and essential IT assets at your company’s
disposal and determine the probability of an exploit.

This in turn would reveal the probable impact of a data breach and point to the next steps in enhancing your
security infrastructure. This assessment can be performed by an in-house IT or security team or conducted
by a third-party security tool like Kiuwan that can help implement this process for you.

MAKE THREAT DETECTION AND REMEDIATION AN AUTOMATIC PROCESS

Incorporate technology that accommodates automated threat detection in order to keep application
security continually proactive instead of reactive. With the plethora of modern applications, it’s not possible
to cover all possible threats. Human error is a huge factor in software vulnerabilities. The best approach is to
have the application recognize and remediate threats without the need for continual human intervention.

MAKE PERIODIC CHECKS AND IMPLEMENT UPDATES AS NEEDED

To maintain a strong security protocol, don’t allow your security tools and practices to become outdated.
They have to be regularly renewed and adjusted to maintain optimal results.

IT and security teams should make frequent changes and corrections to stay a step ahead of modern
threats. Moreover, they need to stay current with advancements in security technology and organize
updates and reassessments regularly to ensure that corrupt parties are not taking advantage of outmoded
technologies in your web applications.

LET BUSINESS IMPACT GUIDE YOUR DECISIONS

By prioritizing and fixing the risks that will have the largest influence on your business, you can save time
and money. Determining the effect of these risks on business-critical applications will serve you well in the
effort to prioritize what must be patched and remediated.

DEVSECOPS PRACTICE
Implementing a developmental security testing operation should help you integrate security into daily
application monitoring. This is critical as approaches for new attacks and breaches are created every day.
Waiting to do security audits at the end of the quarter provides too much of an opportunity for attackers to
gain access to your system before you can examine it.

CREATE AND USE AN INCIDENT MANAGEMENT PLAN

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An incident management plan is a pivotal component of being proactive in your company’s security. This
plan empowers the IT and security teams to know what to do when they encounter a security breach. It will
manage your time and efforts more efficiently. You may want to conduct a test security breach to check the
effectiveness of your incident management plan.
BEST PRACTICES AND BENEFITS
OF APPLICATION SECURITY TESTING
Web security can benefit businesses that leverage software, especially companies in the banking,
financing, and insurance industries. For these businesses, application security testing is a business
imperative. The best testing protocols allow organizations to prioritize security issues based on high-
impact threats and the financial cost of immediately designating the resources needed for remediation.
Of particular concern to the banking and financial industries is the revelation that financially motivated
attacks and data breaches account for 91% of cases in North America. 75% of banking and finance software
developers struggle to detect vulnerabilities across a range of development environments.

With the Kiuwan platform, DevSecOps teams can easily identify vulnerabilities in their software and rapidly
remediate them to prevent challenges in the deployment. Even if you implement a robust password-
changing protocol, this does not solve your data breach problems. A full 33% of breaches were associated
with either phishing or pretexting to gain stolen credentials, which is more of an internal dilemma as ackers
essentially gain access to your code by permission.

With such a vast threat landscape, testing all critical systems should be a fundamental and primary concern
to IT and security teams in all industries, large or small, publicly or privately owned. The best practice
approach is obtaining data from multiple scanning tools to produce actionable information that will
inform the four most problematic issues facing application security in the banking, financing, and
insurance industries:

VISIBILITY
Determining who is responsible for the app security of your business is an issue of visibility and
accountability. No one can be held responsible for data breaches or web attacks when managers or
|security team leaders don’t have the visibility they need into risk and security gaps.

DEVSECOPS PRACTICES
For web application security to get the type of comprehensive coverage needed by your company,
application security teams must work with DevOps teams. DevSecOps is rooted in the need to execute
security measures at the speed and scale of DevOps. This practice should occur at all stages of the
software development life cycle. Security must be tightly integrated into DevOps for true and accurate
DevSecOps to be realized.

MANAGEMENT OF SECURITY TOOLS

No individual tool can do everything a company requires with regard to the safety of its web applications.
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Many companies use several security tools to test their code. These tools can sometimes generate vast
amounts of dissimilar vulnerability data, and it can be challenging to wade through the different formats
and assessments.

Selecting an all-encompassing platform like Kiuwan can make a difference in your company’s security
stance or posture by making security data accessible and understood by all interested parties.
SECURE PRIORITIES
It can’t be stressed enough that a comprehensive real-time view of risk is what separates you from your
competitors. Sorting through data to prioritize what really matters is what allows you to make business and
operational decisions based on clear information. Security is an ongoing process, and every breach must be
evaluated using legitimate data to build and measure priorities.

SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES

ARE ALSO UNDER ATTACK
The increased implementation of cloud and web-based applications in all industry types has made small
and medium-sized businesses vulnerable to attack, and they are now a high-level target for cyberthreats
and web application infiltration.

Phishing is the most prominent threat for small businesses and accounts for over 30% of data breaches,
followed at 27% by the use of stolen credentials. Stolen credentials were also found in over 20% of attacks
against web applications. Attackers targeted login credentials and personal data containing sensitive
materials such as payment information and medical records.

THE ROLE OF KIUWAN CODE SECURITY

Kiuwan provides effective static application security testing and source code analysis as a fully integrated
security solution for your DevSecOps process.

Sensitive data is continually at risk of being compromised by malicious actors. Strengthening security
against external threats should take precedence over other IT and security operations. Kiuwan offers
affordable solutions for teams of all sizes.

Static application security testing (SAST) is the most effective way to detect vulnerabilities in application
source code. This approach allows businesses to remediate vulnerabilities early in the software
development process before security flaws make it into the build and deployment pipeline. This can
significantly reduce the cost of remediation.

Moreover, a SAST solution integrated into the development environment facilitates a DevSecOps approach
that makes security everyone’s responsibility. The best approach is one that helps drive productivity and
collaboration by automating infrastructure and workflows as well as evaluating performance.

CUSTOM SECURITY BUILDS

Build custom configurations with the intuitive features of Kiuwan Code Security. Automatically generate
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action plans to remediate the defects found based on either the effort required by the development teams
or the rating you want to achieve.

You can determine the way you view the criticality of your applications, either distributed by files or
vulnerabilities. Kiuwan compliance reports meet all well-known market standards (OWASP, CWE,
MISRA, NIST, PCI, and CERT, among others), and we are the only platform to support 30-plus
programming languages.
 INCREASE SECURITY —
AND LOWER YOUR COSTS
Today, most companies need software to support their business, whether a pivotal point of contact with
customers or a SAST that runs behind the scenes facilitating work. Methods of code security can be
developed internally or purchased from a third-party solution like Kiuwan.

The decision to integrate Kiuwan code security in your development process will reduce risk and cost, thanks
to the early detection and correction of newly introduced vulnerabilities. Kiuwan code security enforces a
rigorous approach in the detection of security vulnerabilities.

Remember that all companies have similar needs concerning security:

To detect web application vulnerabilities and remedy those issues before deployment

To identify safety protocols while the application is deployed

To gain more significant management and control of web application development

To manage the costs connected to development, maintenance, and remediation

To reduce the number of corrupt attacks affecting the performance and efficiency
of their software

The Kiuwan code security platform can address all the above needs, regard-
less of the size and level of complexity of the development process.
DON’T WAIT FOR AN ATTACK REQUEST A FREE TRIAL OR A DEMO TODAY
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