Solving the Top 10 Application Security Threats

Summary: Cyberattacks are increasing. Attacks are more sophisticated and frequent than ever. Yet, application security still lags behind. Through poor security practices, businesses unwittingly expose themselves to reputation damage and massive revenue loss. Why is security still such a big problem, and how can you address it? This free paper will help you answer both questions.

Web application attackers are becoming more sophisticated. But, application security isn’t keeping pace. Poor application security is becoming an epidemic. How bad is it? One report found that 96% of all web applications contain at least one “serious vulnerability.”

Why? Why do businesses create vulnerable applications year after year? Here are a few common reasons:

• No incentives for security: Peter Drucker is famously quoted as saying, “What is measured improves.” The problem for many developers: Security isn’t measured. Rather, they get rewarded for features and development speed…not security.
• New developers in the workforce: New developers are constantly entering the workforce. They’re stuck maintaining code they didn’t develop, and don’t always understand what a weakness looks like. These new developers make the same security mistakes as their predecessor.
• Short deadlines harm security: As businesses place greater importance on application development speed, security suffers. Developers rush through the project—ensuring it meets all the business requirements. But, this often comes at the expense of proper security practices.
• Businesses treat security like a feature: Shortly after the healthcare.gov site went live, a “white hat” hacker testified on Capitol Hill that security was never properly built into the site. Many businesses struggle with this same problem. They treat security like any other feature that they can add to an application. The problem: Security isn’t something a developer can add at the end. You must build security into the application.

If you think about it, developers are placed in a no-win situation. They’re tasked with developing modern applications. They must keep up with ever-evolving application trends. They’re faced with tight deadlines. Unless the business can afford a dedicated security engineer, the developer is in charge of security as well.

How can they keep up to date with modern development methods and security risks, while meeting tight deadlines? In many cases, they can’t.

So, how can your business create applications that address the top security risks…without sacrificing development speed? We’ve created a new paper that answers this very question, which you can find right here: Solving the Top 10 Application Security Threats.