Application security is a set of processes, technologies, and practices designed to protect applications from threats and attacks that may affect their integrity, availability, or confidentiality. Application security includes penetration tests, access control, source code protection, vulnerability management, behavioural analysis, and threat detection. The goal is to protect applications from threats such as SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting (XSS), attacks on user sessions, and data manipulation.
Application Security
Type of technology
Description of the technology
Basic elements
- Penetration tests: Attempts to detect security vulnerabilities through simulated attacks.
- Source code protection: Protecting code from manipulation and decompilation.
- Access control: Restricting access to applications based on roles and permissions.
- Vulnerability management: Identifying, prioritising, and addressing security vulnerabilities.
- Threat detection: Monitoring application activity and analytics in real time.
Industry usage
- Online banking: Protecting banking applications from attacks on user data.
- E-commerce: Securing online shop applications against payment card data theft.
- Mobile applications: Protecting mobile applications from malware and manipulation.
- ERP systems: Securing enterprise resource management applications from unauthorised access.
- Medical applications: Protecting patient data and health management applications.
Importance for the economy
Application security is crucial to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data and to prevent cyber attacks that can affect business operations, company reputation, and customer security. Application security becomes particularly important in environments where applications are used to process personal, financial, and medical data. Application security breaches can lead to serious financial losses and regulatory sanctions.
Related technologies
Mechanism of action
- Application security works at various stages of the software life cycle, from design and programming to testing and deployment. The safeguards are based on source code analysis, dynamic testing, and real-time monitoring of application behaviour. Threat detection systems analyse application logs and usage patterns to quickly identify suspicious activity, such as unauthorised access attempts or code changes.
Advantages
- Protecting user data: Protecting confidential data from theft or manipulation.
- Operational security: Minimisation of the risk of application interruptions.
- Regulatory compliance: Meeting data protection requirements (e.g. GDPR).
- Reducing the risk of attacks: Protecting applications from common threats, such as XSS and SQLi.
- Increased user confidence: Ensuring a safe environment for users.
Disadvantages
- Gaps in the code: Programming errors can lead to serious security vulnerabilities.
- Zero-day attacks: Attacks that exploit previously unknown application vulnerabilities.
- No updates: Applications that are not updated are vulnerable to new threats.
- DDoS attacks: Malicious attempts to overload applications, leading to outages.
- Management complexity: Difficulties in managing security in complex, distributed applications.
Implementation of the technology
Required resources
- Code analysis tools: Systems to automatically analyse code for security vulnerabilities.
- Threat detection systems: Software for monitoring and analysing application activity.
- Access control systems: Identity and application access management tools.
- Penetration testing software: Tools to simulate attacks on applications.
- Web application firewalls (WAFs): Security that monitors and filters traffic to applications.
Required competences
- Application security: Knowledge of application design and testing methods for security.
- Code analysis: Ability to identify security vulnerabilities in source code.
- Penetration tests: Knowledge of attack techniques and defense methods against common application threats.
- Identity management: Configuring and monitoring application access in distributed environments.
- Vulnerability management: Ability to identify, assess, and address vulnerabilities in applications.
Environmental aspects
- Energy consumption: High demand for computing resources in advanced application monitoring.
- Recycling: Problems with recovering resources when developing applications on life-limited hardware.
- Raw material consumption: High demand for computing power and analysis equipment.
- Emissions of pollutants: Emissions from the operation of servers running complex applications.
- Waste generated: Problems with disposal of old equipment used in application infrastructure.
Legal conditions
- Data protection: Regulations for the protection of personal data processed by applications (e.g. GDPR and CCPA).
- Application safety standards: Standards for application design and implementation, such as OWASP ASVS.
- IT security: IT risk management regulations in the context of applications.
- Compliance with industry standards: Sector regulations for financial, medical, and government applications (e.g. PCI DSS).
- Cybersecurity regulations: Regulations for application security management in cloud and hybrid environments.