It is not easy to ensure top-notch application security in the current emerging tech industry, but it is very crucial to maintain. With the growing incidence of cyberattacks, more reliance on temporary workers, and rapid adoption of new applications, the traditional security practices are no longer enough. Organizations need a smart, robust, and well-planned approach toward application security to outrun vulnerabilities and threats. We have listed here 5 recommended steps to elevate application security measures in your organization.
- Set up Proper Inventory
You cannot protect something when you are not aware of it. You should first focus on creating a proper inventory of all the applications that are currently operational in your workplace. The inventory should be a comprehensive one, detailing all information about applications, such as their dependencies, points of contact, sensitive data handling, and all other minor to major information.
Once you have the inventory, you are in a better position to visualize and test present security measures and then gradually focus on enhancing them. In addition, an inventory also enhances your security team’s efficiency. For example, if the security team finds one application misbehaving, they can quickly unlink it from other connected apps by checking its dependencies from the inventory.
- Each Application Component needs Security
There are two common mistakes that organizations make when it comes to application security. First, they focus more on corporate-level infrastructure security measures rather than application-level. Second, they don’t put much effort into applying security to every application component.
For increasing application security, you should consider this security element separately from your corporate security measures. Afterward, you should implement dedicated security measures for each application component. For example, an application storage or database component requires access control measures, a program execution component requires penetration measures, etc.
- Shift to Cloud-Based Security Services
In many organizations, the IT security team is usually under-resourced or overworked. Without a proper security budget, you cannot purchase the needed security products. In addition, such products also require installation and configuration efforts from the IT team.
The recommended and best way to avoid this is to opt for cloud-based security products. Such products don’t require on-premises hardware or software and thereby avoid significant costs. Besides that, they require the IT team to only focus on configuring and using the products. You can therefore get a better security framework within an affordable budget.
- Rigorous Security Testing & Employing Ethical Hackers
Thorough and continuous testing of your application security measures is the key to addressing new vulnerabilities, detecting unpatched applications, and discovering other gaps. All too often, however, organizations remain aggressive when setting up application security but show less focus on continuous inspection and enhancements.
Of the many different security testing approaches, penetration testing is the strongest one to find loopholes and vulnerabilities in your applications. Ethical hackers can be of great support here. Since they are experienced and skilled to test your application security to the extreme, their inspection reports can be very powerful to bolster your security defense system.
- Expand Security Ecosystem with new Apps
Tech advancements in your organization require expanding the existing security ecosystem. Incorporating new applications into your workplace demands a recalibration of your security infrastructure.
For example, when new apps are added, they may interact with existing ones and the existing security measures may not be strong enough to address new threats associated with the new apps. Therefore, you have to continuously test and expand your security ecosystem with every new app addition.
Final Thoughts
In the present evolving IT world, you cannot expect traditional security practices to address the complex vulnerabilities and security demands of next-generation applications. But with a proactive approach towards security, your organization can keep enhancing its application security framework to efficiently address the emerging threats and vulnerabilities associated with the latest applications.
