Application Security Approach: Design, Containerization and VAPT

Applications lie at the heart of any computing platform, mobile, web or cloud as it provides an interface between the kernel and the users by leveraging the kernels processing capabilities. Application Security therefore becomes a prime area of focus to ensure data security.

Humans have always been considered as the weakest link in information security, and this is no different in the case of applications, as they partially depend on the human input to perform further processing. Well we cant control humans as the input layer but we can definitely adopt the best practices for application security to stay protected from hackers .

Key factors for Secure Application Design: 

 

As such, it becomes most important to focus on application security using a comprehensive approach. Security testers believe that Application Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing for identifying underlying vulnerabilities form a complete solution to all the application security issues. Experts however indicate, that application security is a multi-faceted concern, encompassing the multiple factors for comprehensive protection.

1. Secure Application Design

    • Design level flaws are the primary but lesser known concepts for application security. The presence of security issues at a design level are a very big risk to the application and require deep understanding of application architecture and layout to identify and remediation. Identify the different application components needed for application deployment and their inter-dependencies.
    • If the application is extensively reviewed for security flaws at the design level, many inherent backdoors can be uncovered.
    • Formal design testing methodologies like The Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation constitute of elements for testing the application design for security assurance.

2. Secure Development Methodologies 

    • Secure code can solve many security issues that may otherwise go undetected. Its aim is to define a standard Secure Software Development Life Cycle that can be followed by developers to know what should be considered or best practices at each phase of a development Life Cycle.
    • OWASP Secure Software Development Life Cycle Project defines security software development process as well as guides, tools, checklists and templates of activities in each phase.

3. Containerization 

    • Application container technologies, also known as containers, are a form of operating system
      virtualization combined with application software packaging. Containers provide a portable,
      reusable, and automatable way to package and run applications.
    • The potential security concerns associated with the use of containers and provides recommendations
      for addressing these concerns can be accessed in the NIST Special Publication 800-190, Application Container Security Guide.

4. Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT)

    • Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) is one of the most established domains of cyber security. As most business prefer having an online presence to cater to a greater audience, they ultimately rely on websites showcasing their brand image. However, they don’t pay attention to the potential damage of reputation in case their website gets hacked or defaced. In the worst case the business and their customers can even face financial losses due to compromise of stored credentials.
    • VAPT is one of the most in-demand jobs in the field of cyber security today.  Many tools and technologies have been developed to conduct VAPT.

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