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Application security refers to the practices and processes used to protect applications from cyber attacks and other threats. This includes measures such as secure coding, threat modeling, vulnerability testing, and incident response planning. What’s next for application security? In this article, you will find expert predictions for 2023.
Table of Contents
What Is Application Security and Why Is It Important?
Application security is important because it helps to protect sensitive data and systems from compromise, reduce the risk of business disruption, and maintain the trust of customers and stakeholders. With increasing reliance on software and online systems, ensuring the security of applications has become a critical aspect of overall information security.
In the past, security was often an afterthought, left to the end of the application development process. Effective application security focuses on identifying and fixing these vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by attackers. This includes practices such as secure coding, code reviews, and penetration testing. It also involves proactively securing applications to prevent attacks in the first place. This includes processes such as threat modeling, security testing, and security design reviews.
As more organizations move their applications and data to the cloud, the risk of attacks against cloud assets and operations has increased. Organizations must secure their cloud deployments by implementing security measures such as network segmentation, access controls, and encryption.
Application Security Predictions and Trends for 2023
Combining Cloud and Application Security
Historically, security teams regarded cloud security and application security as separate efforts, with different team members focusing on application code and cloud infrastructure and configurations. However, security risks are intertwined, meaning that a siloed security approach will have gaps.
A converged cloud security and application security approach is becoming increasingly important as organizations move more of their applications and data to the cloud. Cloud security experts and AppSec teams must collaborate closely. The following are some of the reasons why cloud security and application security are likely to converge in the future:
- Unified security posture: As businesses adopt a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud strategy, a unified security posture across all their cloud and on-premise deployments becomes more important. This requires a unified approach to security that considers both the cloud environment and the applications running on it.
- Application and cloud context: Securing applications in the cloud requires a deep understanding of both the application and the cloud environment in which it runs. A converged approach to security considers both the context of the application and the context of the cloud environment, which allows for a more comprehensive and effective approach to security.
- Vulnerability remediation: Many vulnerabilities in cloud deployments result from misconfigurations or the use of insecure applications. A unified approach to security that considers both the cloud and the applications can help organizations to identify and remediate vulnerabilities more effectively. This can reduce the risk of successful attacks and ensure the security of critical data and systems.
Emphasis on Container Security
As more organizations adopt containerization for their applications, the need for container security becomes more critical. Containers offer many benefits, such as improved portability and scalability, but they also introduce new security risks that need to be addressed.
- Potential for data breaches: Containers can contain sensitive data and applications, and if not secured properly, they can be vulnerable to data breaches. Attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in the container runtime, kernel, or third-party libraries to gain unauthorized access to the container.
- Compliance requirements: Many industries have strict regulatory requirements for data security and privacy, such as HIPAA for healthcare, PCI DSS for payment card industry, and GDPR for data protection in the European Union. Failing to secure containers could result in non-compliance, which can lead to significant financial and reputational damage.
- Complex container environments: Container environments can be complex, with multiple containers, services, and dependencies that need to be managed and secured. As a result, businesses need to invest in container security tools and processes to ensure that their container environments are secure.
A Focus on Release Governance
Release governance means that applications security teams have real-time visibility into security issues, establish a comprehensive release policy that considers the application context, and build a pipeline to implement remediation. Executives are increasingly demanding application release governance because it helps organizations to ensure that their applications are secure, reliable, and meet business requirements before they are released.
Governance is becoming a dominant AppSec paradigm for several reasons:
- Compliance and regulatory requirements: As organizations face increasingly stringent compliance and regulatory requirements, they need to ensure that their applications are secure and meet the necessary standards. Application release governance provides a structured process for ensuring that these requirements are met before applications are released.
- Prevention of security incidents: Application release governance helps organizations to identify and remediate security vulnerabilities before applications are released, reducing the risk of security incidents.
- Improving software quality: Release governance provides a structured process for testing and validating applications before they are released, improving the quality of the software and reducing the risk of defects and performance issues.
- Improving business agility: Governance helps organizations to quickly and efficiently release applications that meet business requirements, improving their ability to respond to changing business needs.
The Rise of XDR
XDR, or Extended Detection and Response, is a security approach that provides a unified and integrated view of an organization’s security posture across multiple security domains, including network security, endpoint security, and cloud security.
XDR is a growing trend in application security because it offers the following benefits:
- Data collection and integration: XDR gathers and integrates security data from multiple sources and domains, providing a comprehensive view of an organization’s security posture. This helps to identify threats and vulnerabilities that might be missed by using disparate security solutions.
- Unified data analysis: XDR uses machine learning and other advanced analytics techniques to analyze the collected security data and provide actionable insights. This helps security teams to prioritize and respond to threats more effectively.
- Incident management: XDR provides a unified view of incidents and threats across the entire development and hosting landscape, making it easier for security teams to manage and respond to incidents. This helps to drastically cut the time taken to detect, contain, and remediate incidents, which can help to minimize the negative impact of attacks.
Tightening Security for Open Source Software
Almost all software products include third-party and open-source components, making this aspect of security increasingly important. There are several new initiatives aimed at tightening the security of open-source software. Trends that are likely to continue include:
- Open-source software validation: Organizations are increasingly demanding that open-source software be validated for security and quality before they use it. This includes both automated testing and manual code reviews to identify and remediate security vulnerabilities.
- Higher security standards for open source repositories: There is a growing recognition of the importance of secure open-source repositories, and organizations are implementing higher security standards for their open-source projects. This includes better access controls, automated testing, and more secure storage of project assets.
- Bill of materials (SBOM): Many organizations are requiring SBOMs from third-party software vendors to help identify and manage the security risks associated with open-source software. SBOMs provide a comprehensive list of the components and dependencies used by a software project, including their versions, licenses, and security vulnerabilities.
Conclusion
The application security landscape is rapidly evolving, and organizations need to stay ahead of the curve to effectively protect their applications and data. In 2023, we can expect to see continued growth in areas such as cloud security, XDR, and application release governance, as well as a growing focus on open-source software security.
By embracing these trends and proactively addressing the latest threats, organizations can improve their application security posture and reduce the risk of security incidents. It is essential for organizations to stay informed and adapt to these changes, to keep their applications secure and ensure their business objectives are achieved.
Author Bio: Gilad David Maayan
Gilad David Maayan is a technology writer who has worked with over 150 technology companies including SAP, Imperva, Samsung NEXT, NetApp and Check Point, producing technical and thought leadership content that elucidates technical solutions for developers and IT leadership. Today he heads Agile SEO, the leading marketing agency in the technology industry.
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