How to Avoid Common Application Security Challenges?

Trying to strengthen application security without a well-defined strategy is like shooting in the dark. Evolving technology is helping organizations advance but it also brings forward more sophisticated threats. Despite taking a proactive approach, businesses often fail to overcome app security challenges without a reliable security testing company. With the adoption of the Agile approach across enterprises, security concern is now more significant.

Investment in application security solutions is expected to reach $7.1 billion by 2023. As of 2017, this figure was approximately $2.8 billion. These figures indicate the prospects as well as the threats that are continuously increasing. Therefore hiring a security testing company to secure applications is your best bet against the emerging threats.

Cross-site scripting:

Cross-site scripting is a common web-application vulnerability that allows attackers to execute scripts in the visitor’s browser. The user is unaware of the attack and can be redirected to malicious sites. An important tip here is to keep in mind to protect a website against XSS that can easily be identified with app security testing tools. So the app security testers use these security testing tools as a part of their testing process. 

Inherited vulnerabilities:

App frameworks based on languages like JavaScript are often used by developers to keep up with the pace in an agile environment. Applications can easily be created and prototype by using this language. But these frameworks are based on numerous dependencies and can put all components from unknown sources to threats. Developers rely on JavaScript for its popularity to determine the security, assuming that most of the developers use this language. This can cause flaws in an app and be prone to app vulnerabilities. 

Fail at building the right team:

Application security is not just limited to developers, it also involves other departments like quality assurance, senior executives, etc. Unless pressurized by the senior management, a developer will not make security a top priority. Executives and managers need to walk the talk and show their commitment to comprehensive application security. 

No progress tracking:

Tracking the progress of the report is imperative. This can significantly impact your app security as you’ll have clarity of what is done and what is being done. Moreover, integrating with popular development environments and issue tracking tools is the responsibility of a security manager.

Issues like these can be assigned to the developers within their specific working environment and also track the progress to ensure that the problem is solved. Make sure that your tools support the progress tracking feature.

Conclusion

Taking security into your own hands may not be appropriate, especially if you’re not trained for it. Instead, acquire the services of testing companies who are equipped with the right workforce, tools, and expertise to deal with the threats and vulnerabilities your application faces.