What Is Application Security? Overview + AppSecTools
With rising software security concerns, ensuring that applications are secure is more important than ever. What's more, effective application security must be a priority for nearly every organization — not just software companies.
Here, we explain what is application security and what application security (AppSec) tools you'll need to achieve it.
Read along or jump ahead to the section that interests you the most:
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Back to topWhat Is Application Security?
Application security is the process of making applications secure. This is done by adopting secure coding practices and application security tools.
Back to topTop 10 Application Security Vulnerabilities
Discover what the top 10 security vulnerabilities are for embedded systems. And learn how to protect against them.
Why Is AppSec Important?
Application security is important to protect individuals and organizations from cyberattacks.
Malicious attacks can lead to data breaches, identity thefts, fraud, and other negative outcomes. However, companies do not always do enough to ensure the apps they release are secure.
With tight deadlines and rapidly shifting markets, it can be appealing to release applications quickly without strict security adherence.
If applications are not secure, it can impact the following:
Brand Reputation
By releasing an insecure app, you run the risk of experiencing a significant backlash. Your reputation can be severely damaged. Recently, Facebook’s popular WhatsApp came under international fire for its massive security breach.
Both Facebook and WhatsApp faced a PR firestorm. It eroded public confidence in both platforms.
Focus on ironclad app security. It's the only way to instill confidence in consumers over time.
Identity and Information Protection
Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of protecting their sensitive information from cyberthreats. This includes their bank account number, social security number, and home address.
To ensure that their private information is safe, they will avoid firms that have failed to safeguard their clients' data. By developing your applications with security in mind, consumers feel safer in providing sensitive information.
Back to topPay attention to security in both development and information intake features. This helps to strengthen app users’ engagement long-term.
What are Application Security Challenges?
It's difficult to protect applications from cybersecurity threats. This is even more difficult with the evolution of coding in recent years.
For example: The average midsize financial firm now has a portfolio of more than 1,000 applications. Each of which will have 100s of 1,000s of lines of code. Code folios are growing rapidly.
This is a massive amount to oversee. Mistakes affecting any aspect of this code can potentially lead directly to a security issue. Considering these numbers, it's not surprising that so many companies have experienced cybersecurity breaches in recent years.
To achieve this goal, organizations must adopt more effective strategies and tools.
Back to topTypes of AppSec Tools
Now that you know what is application security, here are five types of application security tools you should consider.
SAST Tools
SAST tools inspect and analyze code for security vulnerabilities.
Static Code Analysis Tools
Static code analysis tools are a type of SAST tool. They analyze code against a coding standard for security violations.
Dynamic Analysis Tools
Dynamic analysis tools find security issues while an application runs.
Code Review Tools
Code review tools are used to manually identify security issues in code.
CI/CD Tools
CI/CD tools are used to automate software delivery processes. These tools add automation for testing earlier in development when it's easier to find and fix security vulnerabilities.
Back to topThe Best Application Security Tool: Klocwork SAST
SAST tools are the best choice for security tools. And Klocwork is one of the best SAST tool options.
Teams are developing code with more features, shorter timelines, and stricter standards than ever before. And it gets increasingly difficult to find bugs and fix security flaws.
But with Klocwork, you can find bugs and fix security flaws — without delaying your release. Sign up for our next live demo to learn how Klocwork can help you improve security. Or, register for a free trial.
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