The number of cyberattacks keeps on increasing in the tech world where it is hard to avoid attackers. This is backed by the fact that half of businesses and organizations reported losing at least $300,000 due to cyberattack incidents in 2024. Moreover, around 12% of organizations reported losses for around $1 million.
These statistics also imply that traditional security testing measures may be insufficient in the present context, which usually focuses on managing only the known vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, attackers are constantly developing new ways to infiltrate software and exploit vulnerabilities. Hence, a more proactive security testing approach is needed to stay ahead in terms of vulnerability identification and management.
Why are Traditional Approaches Not Safe Anymore?
Vulnerability management methods, once considered to be great, have now begun displaying their weaknesses, like:
- The traditional approach focuses on known vulnerabilities and often relies on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). However, it has failed to pinpoint the risks related to a particular business in specific.
- It cannot prioritize cybersecurity or other system risks. This results in businesses allocating time and money to vulnerabilities that pose little to no risk while leaving behind high-risk vulnerabilities.
Thus, organizations are looking for an advanced security testing approach to prevent the business applications, systems, and software from potential threats.
The Need for Continuous Monitoring
An organization’s IT system, including network traffic, system logs, and application activity, must be monitored continuously to identify possible vulnerabilities. This will minimize the chances of attacks and make it easy to remediate.
There are several other benefits continuous monitoring in security testing, which include:
- Early Detection and Faster Remediation
Businesses will gain real-time visibility into their security posture and stay informed about upcoming threats, thus reacting to vulnerabilities faster.
- Reduced Breaching Risk
Continuous monitoring reduces the chances of attacks by identifying suspicious activities and potential vulnerabilities.
- Streamlined Security Operations
The automated security tasks let the security team focus on more strategic initiatives and better allocation of resources.
- Data-Driven Security Decisions
The data collected using continuous monitoring can be used to make informed decisions on overall security strategy and resource allocation.
Application Security Framework for Monitoring Purposes
Using an application security framework can speed up the testing process, and coupling it with continuous monitoring will ensure that the software is built correctly. This involves leveraging application security services that usually follow a structured approach to identify and manage vulnerabilities. Here’s how:
- Fulfills “Shift Left” Security Principle: Frameworks can integrate security measures during the SDLC, and constant tracking extends this by identifying vulnerabilities during the development process.
- Automates Vulnerability Management: The scanning tools within frameworks can ensure regular scans and faster remediation.
- Provides Real-time Threat Detection: Frameworks add another layer to code review and help in finding potential threats.
- Supports Security Metrics and Reporting: The data collected from continuous monitoring can be leveraged by frameworks for reporting and measuring security effectiveness.
Advanced Vulnerability Identification and Management Approaches
The application security framework is well-suited for all business applications, as it supports almost all advanced vulnerability identification and management approaches. The techniques to be used include:
- Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
DAST works as an external attacker, simulating real-world attacks in the app’s running state and examining for vulnerabilities. The simulations help determine how the application is reacting to the vulnerabilities.
It is also helpful in finding runtime vulnerabilities that the static analysis might miss, like SQL injection and Cross-Site Scripting(XSS flaws).
- Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
SAST is crucial for identifying software flaws and critical vulnerabilities because it has access to the application’s source code during testing. It’s a preventive approach that can identify vulnerabilities earlier in the development cycle.
SAST further gives real-time feedback on the codes before the application goes into production and ensures the application’s security.
- Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
SCA is similar to CVSS, which checks open-source libraries and components of the application against known vulnerabilities to identify potential risks. It ensures that third-party vulnerabilities are not introduced into the application unknowingly.
- Penetration Testing
Unlike DAST, penetration testing involves ethical hackers instead of automated tools to simulate real-world attacks. It’s a comprehensive approach that can expose vulnerabilities that automation tools might miss. It can also be customized to target specific business applications, which is a major drawback of the traditional approach.
Streamlining the Security Testing Process
Rather than just relying on a single security testing framework, following a vulnerability management life cycle will streamline all processes and make sure that the application is safe from all future threats. Here’s how:
- Continuous Asset Discovery: You need to stay updated with all the software and application updates within the corresponding environment if you want to be proactive in addressing upcoming threats.
- Prioritization and Risk Assessment: Inspect the severity of the identified vulnerabilities and allocate resources based on the risk they pose.
- Remediation and patch management: Having a plan to follow from vulnerability identification to remediation will ensure a consistent process and consistent results.
- Verification and Validation: Verify that the threat has been cleared after every remediation step, and do not assume that the patch has successfully worked until it is confirmed.
Bottom Line
Traditional security testing methods are no longer sufficient to keep the applications secure from vulnerabilities. This means it’s time for businesses to switch to advanced approaches.
Hence, organizations can make sure that a particular application is safe from vulnerabilities by creating a multi-layer security system with application security management. This also involves leveraging continuous monitoring and other advanced vulnerability management techniques. This will help improve the security posture across organizations and help them stay ahead of the future cybersecurity landscape.
