Almost every business function is powered by enterprise applications, ranging from customer relationship management to supply chain management and finance functions. Enterprise applications are also a major target for cybercriminals, making enterprise application security a critical necessity.
With enterprise applications supporting massive amounts of sensitive information, a breach causing disruption of operations and the trust customers placed in the organisation can be detrimental to the enterprise, emerging from a single event with potential catastrophic costs.
With advanced threats increasing, enterprise application security must no longer be regarded as an ancillary concern but must be part of all aspects of running a secure and successful business.
The Threat Landscape – Biggest Risks Facing Enterprise Apps
As more businesses turn to digital solutions, the applications these businesses depend on have become highly sought-after targets for cybercriminals. When it comes to information systems, the threats only seem to grow in number and severity. The first step in improving enterprise application security is to be aware of these cyber threats and how they can directly affect your most critical systems.
1. Data Breaches
Data is the crown jewel of every business, and cybercriminals are aware of it. Upon a data breach, personal information, financial records, and even intellectual property can be misused. This does not only entail the loss of funds; there may be lawsuits; it becomes a liability of either fines, in the form of penalties, or civil compensation, and potentially loss of reputation for the company. In more substantial organizations, where customers lose trust in a product or service, this can be exacerbated. Ultimately, one cannot deny that it’s paramount to keep their data secured with robust measures such as application security testing services.
2. Ransomware Attacks
Ransomware is perhaps one of the most devastating threats enterprises face. An attacker will take files that are essential for business operations, encrypt them, and demand a ransom to unlock the files.
The loss is not just monetary, as ransom bills can reach millions of dollars. Surprisingly, the downtime associated with ransomware can be equally damaging, as a loss of operational downtime can cripple an enterprise for days or weeks. For a healthcare provider or manufacturer, the impact can be devastating.
3. Insider Threats
The threat can come from organisations’ own employees, contractors, or partners that have authorised access to data, and may solicit it for their own benefits on a planned or accidental basis. Insider threats are often more severe than external threats, as they can often operate within any security protocols. An enterprise needs to balance how much it trusts someone against the risk that corruption, bribery, or opportunism can create.
4. Supply Chain Attacks
Enterprise applications are dependent on third-party solutions, APIs, and open-source components. If any of those dependencies are compromised, the business now inherits that vulnerability. Supply chain attacks are increasingly becoming commonplace for hackers, since they increase the bad actors’ attack surface, thereby gaining access to multiple targets at once. Enterprises must regard their third-party risk as seriously as internal risk.
5. Compliance Violations
Many regulations exist, like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, designed to protect customer and financial data. Violations of compliance can lead to fines and loss of customers’ trust. Reliance on third parties often leads to compliance risk from a lack of access, unencrypted data, or a lack of monitoring. Security and compliance do not function in vacuums.
Get full insights on Enterprise App Penetration Testing.
Latest Penetration Testing Report
Best Practices for Enterprise Application Security
As more businesses turn to digital solutions, the applications these businesses depend on have become highly sought-after targets for cybercriminals. When it comes to information systems, the threats only seem to grow in number and severity. The first step in improving security is to be aware of these threats and how they can directly affect your most critical systems.
1. Data Breaches
Data is the crown jewel of every business, and cybercriminals are aware of it. Upon a data breach, personal information, financial records, and even intellectual property can be misused.
This does not only entail the loss of funds; there may be lawsuits that become a liability of the company, either fines, in the form of penalties, or civil compensation, and a potential loss of reputation for the company.
In more substantial organisations, where customers lose trust in a product or service, this can be exacerbated. Ultimately, one cannot deny that it’s paramount to keep their data secured.
2. Test Early and Often
Finding a weakness earlier makes fixing it easier. Testing regularly – including attack simulations and vulnerability scans – finds problems early before hackers exploit them. Always test all configurations, whether the apps are using your company’s servers, public cloud, or both.
3. Follow a “Never Trust, Always Verify” Model
The Zero Trust model means that no one gets automatic access – including employees working inside the company’s network. Every login or request must be verified. Giving everyone access on a need-to-have basis makes it harder for attackers to move undetected through the environment once they have breached it.
4. Encrypt Everything
Encryption scrambles data so that, if it is stolen by hackers, it won’t matter because they cannot read it. Companies should encrypt their data both when it is stored and during transmission. When used in conjunction with effective key management practices, it is a very strong layer of protection for sensitive information.
5. Provide Employees with Ongoing Training
Using people to augment access to an organisation’s systems is sometimes the weakest link to security. Staff need training to spot phishing emails, to treat sensitive data with care, and to deploy strong password management practices. Ongoing training turns employees into a potential first line of defence from security attacks.
Read: 10 Essential Application Security Best Practices
Modern Security Tools for Enterprise Applications
Today’s complicated enterprise systems can not solely be protected by the traditional security tools we were once comfortable with. New solutions offer new ways to protect ourselves with stronger identity verification, smart AI-enabled threat detection, and embedded protection for cloud apps. These tools offer improved visibility into threats, improved risk management, and secure the most important systems.
1. Identity and Access Management (IAM) with MFA
IAM solutions help organisations control centralised access to enterprise systems. In conjunction with role-based access control (RBAC), organisations enhance damage control by limiting exposure. Adding Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) accomplishes this practically. MFA multiplies the difficulty attackers may experience since access requires a bolster of methods (password, biometrics, security token) to grant them access beyond compromised credentials.
2. Web Application Firewalls (WAF)
A WAF filters traffic through an application and the public Internet by sitting between them, strategically and proactively blocking malicious requests from ever reaching the application being called. In the enterprise application context, they will primarily block against: SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and bot traffic. Modern WAFs leverage machine learning to adapt to emerging threats, putting every public-facing application between organisations and threats.
3. Cloud-Native Security Tools
As businesses increasingly migrate to the cloud, the need for cloud-native app security is paramount. Security tools for container security, Kubernetes environments, and serverless workloads defend against threats to a modern app architecture. Security tools with these capabilities are now bundled with cloud providers and can also include built-in tools that can support monitoring, encryption, and compliance if configured and deployed appropriately.
4. AI and Machine Learning in Security
AI and ML are changing enterprise application security by facilitating faster detection and faster response. They allow for the analysis of massive amounts of data in real time to identify potentially unusual behaviour that might indicate an attack. AI and ML can separate the false positives from the real risks, better informing security teams, enabling them to respond faster with more certainty.
Protect your critical systems with Qualysec—where expertise meets cutting-edge security testing.
How Can Qualysec Help?
Qualysec helps enterprises improve their application security posture with experienced testing and consulting. With security testers and researchers, Qualysec provides customized testing, consulting, and remediation. Their experienced teams provide planned testing to help organisations discover and identify hidden vulnerabilities in applications, APIs, and infrastructure. Qualysec works collaboratively as part of the internal development and security teams, providing proactive application security solutions.
Qualysec’s services include vulnerability assessments, compliance assessments, secure code reviews, and red team assessments. Simulating actual attacks on behalf of the enterprise reassures the enterprise that they are not just complying with regulations but is also protecting itself against impending threats. Qualysec has extensive industry experience working with companies in finance, healthcare, and e-commerce, where the importance of security isn’t just compliance, but is about protecting customer trust as well.
Qualysec works alongside enterprises, supporting them in trusting partners with complex security issues and sophisticated problems. They provide teams with a mixture of technical accuracy and strategic assistance in moving organisations from one-off security tactics to a more de-risked security structure that is future-proof. As an example, testing applications to go live is critical, but so too is increasing vigilance of continuously monitoring the application, which is where Qualysec can provide businesses the confidence to do so.
Secure your enterprise apps with Qualysec’s expert penetration testing—because prevention is always better than recovery. Schedule a call now!
Talk to our Cybersecurity Expert to discuss your specific needs and how we can help your business.
Conclusion
Enterprise Application security needs to be an ongoing endeavour and not a task for a day or a few days. Proactive activity, using the latest tools and working with trusted experts such as Qualysec, businesses and organisations can secure their systems, keep customers trusting their companies, and continue moving safely in the expanding digital-first world.
Build trust with your customers by choosing Qualysec for end-to-end application security solutions. Request a security assessment now!
FAQ’s
1. What are the biggest security risks to enterprise applications?
Enterprise applications face significant security threats such as data breaches, ransomware attacks, insider threats, and supply chain attacks. Threats often put sensitive data at risk, disrupt operations, or take advantage of third-party dependencies. Regulatory violations and compliance failures also expose organisations to potential harm sustained through portfolio damage and financial penalties.
2. How can organisations bake security into the application development lifecycle?
Organisations make security just another part of their code development by adopting secure coding standards, regularly reviewing code, and scanning for vulnerabilities while the code is being developed. Automated testing tools should be integrated into CI/CD pipelines to catch issues during development. By shifting left, security is baked into the development process.
3. What best practices create ongoing protection for enterprise applications?
Ongoing protection starts with strong access controls, encryption, and use principles associated with Zero Trust. To develop another layer of protection, organisations should continuously monitor for potential attacks, conduct penetration testing regularly, and establish a culture of training employees to identify threats. Treating security as part of a continual process creates an organisation’s resilience to evolving threats.
0 Comments