Is your IT Application secured?

If you are bothered about how secured your IT application is, then it means you realize the importance of securing your app – that’s where you win half the battle. Some organizations still don’t realize why should they make application security a top priority.

Before you start developing your app, pay attention to secure it from every possible threat like – data theft, compromising of private information and therefore damaging the reputation of your company. By developing, adding, and testing security features within applications these security vulnerabilities can be prevented. Solid security practices will keep your data safe and save you from huge penalties, legal infraction or non-compliance in case of any data leak.

Types of Application Security features:

Nothing can guarantee the complete security of applications. But there are some security features that might assure the users before trusting the application with their data.

• App developers include authentication procedures while building an app to ensure only authorized users gain access to it. The user authentication can be accomplished by requiring the user to provide a user name and password. For multi-factor authentication – it may need a password, a specific device, a thumb impression or facial recognition.
• Once the user is authenticated, the system can validate if the user has the authorization to access the application by comparing his identity with a list of authorized users.
• While using an application, the user must be assured that there should be some security measures that will protect any sensitive data that he is sharing from being seen or used by a cyber-criminal. Here comes encryption. In cloud-based applications, the traffic containing sensitive data can be encrypted to keep it safe.
• In case of any security breach, application log files provide a time-stamped record that can help the user identify who got the access and how.
• Finally, application security testing must be conducted to ensure that all the security controls are working properly.

Best practices of Application Security:

Security failure is a threat to a company’s reputation, its relationship with customers, brand image and even stock market valuation. There are some best practices that IT organizations should pursue in order to ensure IT security in such a rapidly changing scenario:

• Track the infrastructure of your application to know which component of the infrastructure is most vulnerable. Treat every component as unknown and insecure and analyse them from the security perspective to determine what measures need to be taken to prevent the interaction between non-application components and the data you send and receive.
• When you have the list of the components of the application infrastructure, look for the security vulnerabilities in each component. Perform a security risk assessment with a systematic approach. Develop policies for intrusion detection, access control, security compliance etc. Also, do detailed profiling of users and their devices along with a plan for guest networking access followed by a registration process, their authentication and sponsoring. Plan out a strategy for better incident response to block, isolate, and repair non-compliant machines.
• Automate installation and configuration of security components as it ensures that recommended measures are implemented consistently which is necessary to avoid security vulnerabilities.
• Implement security measures must be monitored regularly. Carry out a penetration testing that can provide valuable information and feedback on areas that need to be addressed. Get an application security audit done by expert professionals who know what to look for, including the obvious and the subtle, as well as the hidden vulnerabilities or security threats.
• Also, make sure your servers are set to update to the latest security releases as they become available.