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Author: Amarender

IoT & The rise of Botnet Attacks

Posted on by Amarender

Before reading this article, take a minute to look for all the devices you own! In our day-to-day life, we use various electronic devices to make our life comfortable and intelligent but do we require as many devices-?

Just for “convenience” & “lazy,” we are leveraging cyber attackers to use our widgets to track down a system (DDoS attacks) and become a part of that crime ring without our intentions or acknowledgment.

The Internet of Things (IoT) elaborates the network of physical objects—”things”—embedded with software, sensors, and other technologies to c and interchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet. There’s a comprehensive range of ‘things’ that fall under the IoT umbrella:

  • Internet-connected innovative’ versions of traditional appliances such as refrigerators and light bulbs.
  • Gadgets like Alexa-style digital assistants could only exist in an internet-enabled world.
  • Internet-enabled sensors transform healthcare, factories distribution centers, and Transportation.

The IoT helps in information handling, web availability, and investigation of actual items. IoT can efficiently assemble cycles and conveyance frameworks in significant business settings that the web has long conveyed to information work. Billions of implanted web-empowered sensors give an unquestionably rich arrangement of information that organizations can use to work on the well-being of their tasks, track resources, and decrease manual cycles.

It can utilize machine information to foresee whether gear will separate, giving makers preemptive guidance to forestall extended lengths of personal time. Scientists can likewise use IoT gadgets to accumulate information about client inclinations and conduct. However, that can have severe ramifications for protection and security.

So, how big is IoT?

More than 50 billion IoT gadgets in 2020, creating 4.4 zettabytes of information. (A zettabyte is a trillion gigabytes.) In 2013, IoT gadgets delivered a simple 100 billion gigabytes. The IoT market also makes stunning cash; it gauges around $1.6 trillion to $14.4 trillion by 2025.

In the Global IoT Forecast, IoT analytics Research predicts 27 billion dynamic IoT connections by the year 25′.

IoT applications

Business-prepared and SaaS IoT Applications

IoT Intelligent Applications with prebuilt software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications can investigate and deliver IoT sensor information to business clients through dashboards.

AI algorithms are used by IoT applications to examine gigantic measures of associated sensor information in the cloud. By availing of continuous IoT dashboards and alarms, you gain perceivability into crucial execution pointers, measurements for meantime among disappointments, and other data. AI-based calculations can distinguish gear inconsistencies, send cautions to clients, and trigger mechanized fixes or proactive countermeasures. With cloud-based IoT applications, business clients can rapidly improve existing cycles for supply chains, client support, HR, and monetary administrations. 

Some other applications are in: 

  • Manufacturing Industry – Product Monitoring
  • Tracking of Physical Assets
  • Human wearables – health monitoring
  • Geo-tagging & environmental conditions etc.

IoT security and vulnerabilities

IoT gadgets have procured a terrible standing concerning security. Laptops and cell phones are common computers intended to keep going for quite a long time, with complex, easy-to-understand OSes that presently have robotized fixing and security highlights. 

IoT gadgets are essential devices along with stripped-down OSes. They are intended for individual assignments and negligible human association and can’t be fixed, observed, or refreshed. Since numerous IoT gadgets are at last running a rendition of Linux in the engine with different organization ports accessible, they make enticing focuses for programmers.

The Mirai botnet, made by a young person telnetting into home surveillance cameras and child screens that had easy-to-figure default passwords, wound up sending off one of history’s most significant DDoS assaults.

Coming to Bots/Boatneck Attack:

A bot is a software program that executes an automated task and is usually repetitive. Bots make up 38% of all internet traffic, with bad bots generating one in five website requests. Bad bots perform malicious tasks that allow an attacker to take control of an affected computer remotely. Once infected, these machines may also be referred to as zombies. These days, bad bots are big business, with cybercriminals using them to access accounts, attack networks, and steal data fraudulently.  

Many types of malware infect end-user devices intending to enlist them into a botnet. Appliances that get infected start communicating with a Command and Control (C&C) center and can perform automated activities under the attacker’s central control. 

Botnet owners use them for large-scale malicious activity, commonly Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. However, botnets can also be used for malicious bot activity, such as spam or social bots. 

Types of Bots: 

Both Legal and illegal malicious bots are present on the Internet, and below are some common examples of Bots,

Spider Bots

Spider bots are web spiders or crawlers that browse the web by following hyperlinks to retrieve and index web content. 

If you have numerous web pages, you can place a robots.txt file in the root of your web server and provide instructions to bots, specifying which parts of your site they can crawl and how frequently. 

Scraper Bots

Scrapers read the data from a website to save them offline and enable their reuse. This may take the form of scraping the entire content of web pages or web content to obtain specific data points, such as names and prices of products on eCommerce sites. 

Web scraping is a gray area -in some cases, scraping is legitimate and may be permitted by website owners. However, in other instances, bot operators may be violating website terms of use or leveraging scraping to steal sensitive or copyrighted content. 

Spam Bots

A spambot is an Internet application that manages to accumulate email addresses for spam mailing lists. A spam bot can collect emails from websites, social media websites, businesses, and organizations, leveraging the specific format of email addresses. 

After attackers have amassed an extensive list of email addresses, they can use them not only to send spam emails but also for other nefarious purposes: 

Credential cracking 

Pair emails with general passcodes to avail unauthorized account access.

Besides the damage to end-users and organizations affected by spam campaigns, spam bots can also choke server bandwidth and spike Internet Service Providers (ISPs) rates.

Social Media Bots

Social media these days is operated via such bots to generate messages automatically to gain followers and advocate ideas. For example, it is estimated that 9-15% of Twitter accounts are social bots. 

It can use social bots to infiltrate groups of people and used to propagate specific ideas. Since there is no rule against this activity, social bots play a significant role in online public opinion. 

Social bots can create fake accounts to amplify the bot operator’s message and generate fake followers/likes. Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to identify and mitigate social bots because they can exhibit very similar behavior to real users. 

Download Bots

Download bots are automated programs that can use to download software or mobile apps automatically. They are used to attack download sites, creating fake downloads as part of an application-layer Denial of Service (DoS) attack. 

Ticketing Bots

Ticketing Bots are our favorite ways to buy automated tickets for popular events and resell them for more money. Unfortunately, this method is illegal and annoys consumers, ticket sellers, and event organizers.

Ticketing bots tend to be very sophisticated, having the same human ticket-like behavior.

 

Bot Traffic detection

Below are some parameters to detect not traffic in web Analytics:

Traffic trends

An abnormal increase in traffic can sometimes signify bot activities and is particularly true if the traffic occurs during odd hours.\

Bounce rate

Abnormal highs or lows may signal a dangerous bot. 

For example, bots that appear on a particular page on the site and then switch IP will have a percent bounce.

Traffic sources

During a malicious attack, the primary channel giving traffic is “direct” traffic, and the traffic will consist of new users and sessions.

Server performance

a slowdown in server performance may signal bots.

Suspicious IPs/geo-locations

Spike in activity to an unknown IP range or region where you do not do business. Humans generally request a few pages and not others, whereas bots will often request all pages.

Language source

They see hits from other languages your customers do not typically use.

The above-discussed criteria only provide a rough idea of the bot activity. They require us to know that sophisticated malicious bots can generate a realistic, user-like signature in your web analytics. Therefore, it is advisable to use a dedicated bot management solution that provides a clear view of the Bot Traffic. 

Managing Bot Traffic: Basic Mitigation Measures

There are specific simple measures you can take to block at least some bots and reduce your exposure to bad bots:

  • Place robots.txt at the root of your website to define which bots can access your website.
  • Adding CAPTCHA on comment, sign-up, and download forms to prevent downloading spam bots.
  • We can get a bot alert using JavaScript notification as it can act as a buzzer whenever sees a bot entering a website.

 

5 Reasons Why Mid- & Small-size Businesses are Affected More by Malware Attacks

Posted on by Amarender

We read about increasing cyberattacks and the new ways cybercriminals employ to steal data, corrupt systems or gain access to a company’s database every day. Most of the news that reaches us is about large, renowned companies that have been victims of cybercrime. Malware attacks, including adware, ransomware, trojans, viruses and more, are commonly observed in business scapes all around the world. But it is pivotal to understand that while we read about big companies being the victims, mid & small-size businesses are equally the targets of cybercriminals.

The reason is simple – the data in these companies is not adequately protected, making it easy for the criminal to steal or destroy it. Malware attacks may harm these companies more due to delayed actions and lack of safety walls, affecting a big part of their resources and infrastructure. Mid & small-cap companies have become easy targets for malware attacks in the past few years.

Knowing and understanding malware will safeguard organizations from being compromised. Here’s a small guide on the types of attacks frequently faced by SMEs & MMEs:

1.  Adware

Pop-up ads or random ads on phones, emails, or certain websites may redirect the user to advertising websites, where a cybercriminal may steal all the data without consent. Not all ads are legitimate. Right awareness and careful surfing may prevent employees from falling bait to adware attacks.

2. Ransomware:

This attack may come in many forms, but it usually ends up in the user (in this case, the organization) paying a ransom to gain back access to their own data. Over 90% of ransomware attacks happen through emails. So, making the employees aware of email safety hygiene, regular data backups and storing the data on separate networks will help reduce the effect of the attack. Also, strong security suites on all computers matching international standards will help avoid and identify malware attacks altogether.

3. Credential Stealing:

Various types of malware can be used to steal the credentials of the employees and clients by cyber-criminals. Moreover, the reuse of the same credentials across multiple platforms multiplies the effect of the attack. Therefore, regularly changing the passwords, multi-factor authentication, and the use of different credentials across different platforms can help secure the company’s data to some extent.

Malware attacks can be used to take control of sensitive data, confidential information about the company or financial data. Robust cybersecurity solutions and following standard cyber hygiene will help protect the company and its resources. Our experts can always help you find the solutions and safety you are looking for. Connect with us today!

Also, remember to stay updated; as cybercriminals find new ways to attack our systems, we should adapt similarly to protect them.

Threat Hunt & Safety – Know Your Defenses against Malware

Malware is a piece of software that enters your system through an infected website, email attack, ads or apps and is designed to damage, destroy or steal data from your systems. It is malicious software and comes in the form of adware, spyware, trojans, bots, viruses or ransomware. There are preventive tools that can be used to protect you against malware.

Malware Protection

There are various anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall security systems that are used by businesses to protect against malware. But when the software used to attack is complex and advanced, it can easily break through these systems. In such cases, multiple layers of security, as well as experts at TSARO Lab, can help you protect your systems and data optimally.

Malware Response

Once the malware enters your network and system, the first security step is to detect the breach. The next step involves identifying the type of malware and the exact software breaching your system. While anti-viruses may help with basic data breaches, advanced malware attacks will need expert intervention.

Cyber-security – A Necessity in Today’s World

Posted on by Amarender

The constant rise of technology in the modern world has strengthened people’s connection with cyberspace. From storing sensitive documents and personal information on cloud servers to making transactions through online banking, people’s reliance on the internet knows no
bounds. However, this increasing use of cyberspace has opened Pandora’s box of cybercriminals that pose a serious threat to cyber security.

Cyber security can be termed as the process of protecting your sensitive data, networks, systems and hardware from cyber-attacks by applying certain technologies and techniques. Cyber-attacks can happen on anyone, whether you are an average citizen or a large multinational company. Moreover, there are multiple ways in which a cybercriminal can gain access to your data. Thus, it has become necessary to make cyber security an integral part of your life.

Following are a few factors that highlight the importance of cyber security:
1. Safeguards Your Cloud Servers: Most businesses in today’s world prefer to keep their data on cloud servers due to the ease of accessibility it provides to the users. Such servers contain your personal information, bank details etc. and hence are an easy target for cybercriminals. Cyber security protects these servers from such threats.

2. Helps Maintain Reputation: If you become the victim of a cyber-attack, you lose not only your data or money but also your credibility. Cyber security can help you maintain your reputation by preventing potential attacks.

3. Defends Against Viruses: A computer virus can disrupt your entire online network and bring your business to a standstill in no time. Cyber security measures help defend your systems against virus or malware attacks.

4. Prevents Data Theft: If your sensitive data ends up in the wrong hands, it can be used to steal your money, identity, private information, business secrets etc. Cyber security solutions are necessary to detect and thwart unauthorized access and protect you from any damage.

Cyber security is no longer limited to just antivirus and firewalls in today’s world. There are different elements of cyber security like Application Security, Network Security, Information Security, End-user Security, Operational Security, Cloud Security, Disaster Recovery Planning etc. Each of these elements is unique on its own and caters to a specific area of your infrastructure. However, the end goal of all these elements is to make you impervious to cyber threats and help you recover in no time in case you fall victim to a cyber-attack.

Cyber security is an evolving process because technology is growing rapidly, and so is the never-ending urge of cybercriminals to come up with new ways to steal your data. All you can do is keep your cyber security software up to date to keep your information safe and maintain its confidentiality.

How to Identify & Avoid Phishing Scams

Posted on by Amarender

It’s the end of the month, and your cash reserves are running low. All you need is some money to keep you going till your next salary. During this stressful period, you receive an email or a text message that reads, “Get Instant Loan In 10 Minutes At Just 1% Interest”. You click on it because it looks ‘legitimate’ and because you need money. The corresponding link asks you to fill out your personal/bank details, and you end up doing that. Nothing happens for a few days, and then one day, you get a message that your bank balance has been wiped out!

The above example is a classic case of a Phishing scam, and millions of people around the world have fallen victim to this scam in the past few years. Phishing attacks can be considered cyberattacks from fraudsters where legitimate-looking messages are sent to people to steal their sensitive information. Cybercriminals launch a multitude of these attacks every day, and most of them end up being profitable to them.

Identifying A Phishing Attack

Cybercriminals have grown smart over the years, so it has become quite difficult for a novice to identify a phishing attack. Nowadays, scammers send messages or emails that look exactly like your trusted source or company. If you receive such an email, start by checking whether the greeting is generic or personalized. Fraudulent messages tend to have a generic greeting as they are sent randomly.

Generally, a scammer concocts a short story in order to get you to click on a link or open an
attachment. You should be alarmed if a text or mail says –

You have won a lottery
Your credentials need to be changed
You must confirm your password or personal information
There is suspicious activity or log-in attempt
Update your payment details, etc.

How To Avoid This Scam?

1. Think twice before you click: Even though a communication looks trustworthy, think before you proceed. Contact the concerned company or source if required to verify the authenticity of that message.

2. Install An Antivirus Software: Such software can be your first line of defence against a phishing scam as it detects malicious sites and sends you a warning in case you are visiting that site.

3. Use multi-factor authentication: This type of authentication requires two or more credentials for extra security, making it difficult for the spammers to log in to your account.

4. Avoid Entertaining Uninitiated Communication: If you have not started the conversation, then do not share your personal information or passwords with the sender in any case.

5. Cross-Check Your Accounts: Keep track of the activity on your account and check your bank statements regularly to identify a scam, if any.

Protecting yourself from a phishing scam is possible; all you need to be is vigilant and follow the guidelines mentioned above to enjoy a productive and stress-free time on the internet.

Understanding the Types of Cyber Threats – A Brief Summary

Posted on by Amarender

The digital world is expanding, and so are the cyber threats that come with it. There are many online risks, from network intrusions and privacy violations to viral phishing and malicious attacks. Consequently, no one, not even the most well-heeled companies or the most technologically-superior titans, are shielded from these cyber threats.

Simply put, cyber or cybersecurity threats are deliberate attempts to damage, steal, or disrupt digital life in some way. DoS attacks, computer viruses, data breaches are some of the most common types of cyber-attacks that you would have heard of. For organizations, regulatory fines, litigations, reputational harm, and disruptions to business continuity are all potential consequences of cyberattacks, in addition to massive financial losses. Today, individuals and enterprises are always at the risk of losing their confidential information and vital assets to cybercriminals who continue to use increasingly sophisticated technologies.

Despite the fact that the number and variety of cyber threats are always mounting, there are a few that modern businesses should be mindful of. The most common types include:

– Malware: Malware is computer software that performs harmful actions on a network or
a device, such as distorting information or gaining access to a system

– Ransomware: Malware known as ‘ransomware’ uses encryption to hold a victim’s data hostage until a ransom is paid. The cybercriminal demands a ransom to decrypt the databases, files or apps that have been encrypted.

– Data Breaches: A data breach occurs when an unauthorized intruder gains access to secret, sensitive, or otherwise protected information

– Trojans: Malicious software that appears to be legal but can take over your computer is called a ‘Trojan’ or ‘Trojan horse. A Trojan horse corrupts, destroys, robs, or in some way damages your data or system. To dupe you, a Trojan disguises itself smartly as harmless.

– Phishing: An email, instant chat, or text message scam when an attacker poses as a well-known company or person to access personal information such as email passwords, credit card details etc., refers to phishing. Scammers attempt to get access to personal information by sending communications that look legitimate.

– Man in the Middle Attack: A cyber thief can get in between a machine and a server to steal data. This is more like eavesdropping in the digital world.

– Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attack: DoS assaults occur when a hostile event seeks to disrupt the availability of an asset. Many different kinds of attacks fall under this umbrella category.

A wide range of individuals, sites and circumstances might pose a threat to your cyber safety and security. By adopting robust and proactive countermeasures and evolving security measures faster, people and organizations can become more self-aware in protecting personal and sensitive information. A safe and orderly digital environment necessitates the presence of good cyber security. While you go digital, stay cyber safe!

5 Tips for Businesses to detect Phishing Emails

Posted on by Amarender

Even though phishing is a widespread form of cybercrime, many people are still duped by scam emails, despite our best efforts. As a result, people continue to send large sums of money or sensitive information over the Internet or email, only to be conned.

An attempt to deceive you into thinking that you are communicating or sharing information with a real and legitimate organization is the ultimate goal of phishing. These demands for personal information may appear safe or legitimate at the first glance. In order to fall victim to these scams, one may be required to respond to an email, call, or visit a phishing website. Watch out!

You may improve your phishing awareness by learning how to recognize phishing emails and how to avoid them:

1. Domain Name: Cybercriminals use domain names different from legitimate sources when sending phishing emails. To tell a domain apart from its original, you only have to glance at its ending. For example, the real URL would be www.asmediaworks.in, whereas the phoney URL would be www.asmediaworks-indi.in.

2. Poor Language: A message containing silly grammatical or spelling errors is most likely a phishing email message. Grammatical errors are more prevalent, considering the use of spell checkers by scammers. It is rare to find language errors in well-reviewed official communications.

3. Suspicious Links and Attachments: All or most phishing emails will invariably have a payload. Either an infected attachment or a harmful link leading to a spurious website will be added to the phishing email. These payloads are intended to collect confidential data, such as passwords, credit card details, and account numbers.

4. Sense of Urgency: A fabricated sense of urgency is very effective in workplace scams. And
so, phishing emails create time-bound situations and require immediate action without much deliberation.

5. Faulty Signature: Lack of information about the sender or signer is a red flag. Legitimate businesses always provide complete contact information.

Fraudsters are the masters of their craft. In many cases, malicious emails use compelling logos, names, and even an email address that appears valid – exercise maximum caution. Check, re-check, repeat!

3 Secure Coding Practices You Can’t Ignore

Posted on by Amarender

Secure coding is the act of creating PC/computer programming to protect the platform against unplanned occurrences in security vulnerabilities.

As we know, some of the primary reasons for the exploitations of software/programming/coding vulnerabilities are the common bugs, defects, and logical flaws we face in daily common software programming mishaps.

To avoid such regular bugs (also called common software programming errors) and to successfully develop the secure code, here are the 3 Secure Coding Practices that you can’t ignore.

1. Security:

This undoubtedly is one of the most critical aspects of safe coding practices. It’s proven that we cannot firewall our way into being secure.

So, after a lot of sweat and brain work, the security experts have concluded some steps to secure your code/program against the common security vulnerabilities.

Some of them are; Query Parameterization, Secure Password Storage, Contextual Output Encoding, Cross-Site Script (XSS), Content Security Policy, Cross-Site Request Forgery, Multi-Factor Authentication, Forgotten-Password Security Design, and a lot more have evolved and are evolving with the increase of demand and the need in the present.

2. Testing:

Test your code as much as you can, be your critic.

The testing can be the Basic Functionality Test, where you ensure every button on every screen is functioning according to the expectation.

In the same line, there are many efficient testing tools to run through, such as Static Code Analysis, Unit Testing, Single User Performance Test, etc., only to ensure that your code doesn’t face any vulnerabilities.

3. Coding Standards:

Coding standards are the ways for one to understand the platform they are working on.

There have been developed various forms of standards for different situations and areas to enable you to learn about and contribute to secure coding standards.

It is suggestible that we follow a set of patterns or collectively established coding standards to improve the overall quality of the software application.

Conclusion:

To conclude, secure coding is the vast ocean that is and still is growing day by day. It is always better to keep updating ourselves with the ever-evolving land of “Coding.”

How to Integrate Security into DevOps

Posted on by Amarender

As we start off, we need to question ourselves to see if we’re doing everything to mitigate risks concerning our applications and environments.

I’m sure; after some thought, we will all answer in the negative.

However, the solution to this problem is simple but still challenging – and it all has to do with the simple fact that security is better assured when it is baked in rather than when it is bolted on.

So, DevOps is the best place to begin when confronted with this problem.

DevOps is the place to begin integrating operations into processes of development (from end-to-end), and this works the other way around.

Now, let’s look at the five best practices to integrate Security into DevOps.

1.At the very top:

The willingness for this exercise must come from the very top for it to be effective and successful.

Therefore, there should be the organizational will and commitment to invest resources, time, and money towards creating a sense of organizational security awareness.

This awareness must be reflected in every action and exercise the company and the team undertakes.

Sometimes, to emphasize the importance of Security in DevOps, case studies detailing other high-profile lapses and security breaches could be introduced to the team to make them aware of the grave consequences to the entire enterprise.

This practice will challenge them and cause them to take the matter more seriously.

It’s also equally important to dedicate extra time to ponder the security implications and allocate more time for testing.

All this can only take shape if all the executives know the consequences and pay the necessary attention.

2. From the first day onwards:

Security training must be included in the tenure of every developer at the very beginning.

This training should include secure coding basics, as well as the common exploit vectors.

This will get the new hire into thinking and security measures right from the start and set the tone for the rest of their activities in the company.

In addition, you could also get senior developers to create modules on secure coding practices and common security mistakes – this will help train junior developers while also reiterating the importance of security to the senior developers; this training should be conducted multiple times a year, with each module and session increasing in intensity and complexity.

3. Clear and emphatic:

The security processes should be clear, easy to understand and execute, and unambiguous.

The developers should be left with no doubt what action should be taken or what steps to follow in any given situation.

Instead, with the time pressure hanging over them, they should feel empowered to take decisions on the spot and at the right time.

Furthermore, a WISP or a written information security plan and other documents should be considered.

However, while these are being drawn up, care must be taken to ensure clear and concise. Try and keep them to under three pages – if not, they could have the opposite effect.

4. Simplicity is the key:

Refrain from being the jack of all trades in this situation. Instead, be an expert on the small list of tools and environments that you and the teams under your charge specialize in.

This, in turn, will provide efficiency and economies of scale. Also, instead of providing multiple solutions to one problem, provide one clearly understood and explainable answer.

5. Test, and then test some more!:

Testing, as you’ve heard it said, is crucial! Therefore, penetration testing and code reviews are of the utmost importance and must be treated that way.

Rolling code reviews could also be included while deployment is being undertaken – this could be coupled with some periodic deeper dives. In addition, third-party testing, as well as internal rolling pen testing, should be integrated into the process too.

You could also add some motivation to this whole exercise by rewarding staff for every issue they zero in on.

Conclusion:

So there you have it; these are the five best practices you should look at when integrating security into DevOps.

We hope you found this helpful piece and sincerely hope you will consider these pointers while carrying out security integration at your company.

Get a FREE consult from our security experts today 🙂

How to Create an Application Security Strategy

Posted on by Amarender

One of the most prominent challenges organizations face today is how to build a secure application strategy. It is no simple effort to make an application security strategy that is both extensive and powerful. But it is vital, as a breach can be quite costly to the organization.

From daily users to corporations, companies, and enterprises, depending on web applications for their everyday activities, web application security has become a critical aspect that businesses need to pay close attention to.

Most importantly, an application security strategy is necessary to deal with any application risks. Hackers and attackers have begun to target web applications more and more with each passing day.

Read more on how we design AppSec strategies for our clients.   READ MORE.

So what is an Application Security Risk?

Application security risks are the vulnerabilities present in an application that allows attackers to take advantage of the application or the data it possesses to use it for their own needs.

These vulnerabilities must therefore be addressed or removed to prevent breaches, attacks, and risks.

These attacks can include phishing attacks, installing malware, or in some cases, even remotely controlling an infected computer or network.

The cost of a data breach:

The cost is one of the leading reasons a secure application strategy is at the top of every organization’s priorities. The company’s size does not matter; a data breach of any size can have disastrous consequences for your company, financially and reputation-wise.
If we look only at the financial angle, the costs of a data breach continue to affect your bottom line for years negatively. The cost of data breaches has been increasing.

If we look only at the financial angle, the costs of a data breach continue to affect your bottom line for years negatively. Worse yet, the cost of data breaches is increasing.

A recent report found that the average cost of a data breach is currently at $3.92 million.  It represents a 10.2 percent increase over the last five years.

Quick Facts from the Report :

  • Organizations that are subject to rigorous regulation have higher average data breach costs.
  • The Top 5 industries that have the highest average total cost of a data breach :
    1. Healthcare
    2. Energy
    3. Financial
    4. Pharma
    5. Technology
  • The Average cost of the data breach has gone up for mid-sized organizations has gone up 7 percent, which is $4.72 million in 2020.
  • The primary root causes and breakdown for a data breach are Human error at 23 percent, a Malicious attack at 52%, and a system glitch at 25%.
  • The difference in the average total cost of a data breach for organizations without security automation and fully deployed automation is $3.58 million.

So How to build your Application Security Strategy?

To prevent application security attacks and vulnerabilities, enterprises and corporate application developers must formulate a comprehensive application security strategy.

This strategy must make every effort to identify significant risks, prevent these risks from attacking applications while also putting processes to enable this.

Please keep the below points in mind while creating an application security strategy for your company:

Conduct comprehensive AppSec Testing:

It’s crucial to prevent the application’s exposure to any potential risks. So do fix this first. Conduct a thorough test of the current application suite with a blended testing tool, including Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools, Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) tools, and Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools, Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tools. The industry approach recommends combining manual testing and threat modeling.

Build a culture of Application Security:

A well-driven structured strategy starts from the organization’s top and should be throughout the organization. All C-suite leaders should guide the communication and commit to security. Pay close attention to the threats and attacks prevalent in the industry and keep an eye on recent attacks to ensure that your applications remain risk-free.

Infuse security into your DevOps

Build-in security at every step of the application development process and ensuring that the development and security teams are in synergy. Ensure that you always make use of best-in-class integrated data and systems to ensure system-wide and company-wide security. Build an environment of collaboration and open communication to drive a successful DecSecOps strategy.

Use vulnerability management tools :

Bring in an application vulnerability management process. Integrate sound application vulnerability finders and tools with the development process to detect vulnerabilities. Analyze results from SAST and DAST tools, and prioritize which vulnerabilities to address.

Check the security requirements:

Ensure that the internal and external security requirements align with the required business service levels. Prioritize security requirements through the development process, plan accordingly to keep your speed of development, and be focused on application security aspects that are covered throughout.

Develop your AppSec plan and Risk Management Process

Document all application security strategies. Check the plan every year to ensure that it remains accurate and serves the design for the organization. Make sure to add all tools used to monitor and address security issues and aligned organizational standards. Lastly, create and execute a risk-management process.

We hope you found this piece on application security a helpful strategy. We hope you will keep the pointers mentioned above in mind while creating an application security management process for your enterprise or company.

Reach out to us to understand more about how you can build your AppSec strategy.

Application Security Vulnerabilities

Posted on by Amarender

The application security vulnerability is a flaw or weakness in a software application that lets a hacker hack the application and exploit it further.

This blog has listed the top 5 vulnerabilities that you should be aware of while developing your software application.

Application Security Vulnerabilities:

Let’s take a look at the top 5 security vulnerability list below:

1. Injection flaws:

This flaw is noticed when there is a failure to filter untrusted inputs.

When this happens, an attacker can inject commands, resulting in clients’ browsers being hijacked and a loss of essential data.

2. Credentials management:

This threat can occur when the attacker tries to breach the usernames and passwords and can therefore take control of the users’ accounts.

3. Failure to restrict URL access:

When applications do not perform access control checks before rendering protected links and buttons, the attacker can access unauthorized URLs.

This can take place even without logging into the application.

4. Format string:

This attack can take place when the application in question interprets data as a command. This then provides the attacker easy access to the code base that underlies this.

5. Transport protection layer:

As a result of the use of invalid certificates, weak algorithms, not using SSL, and even the use of certificates that have expired, communication can be made available to untrusted users.

As a general rule, you should also pay close attention to the latest OWASP list.

The OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities 2018 list contains coding vulnerabilities, amongst several others that you need to pay close attention to – this can help you keep these web application security vulnerabilities away.

Feel free to read more on what we do.

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