Web applications are under siege as cyber attackers work around the clock to identify weak spots and steal data. Last year’s Equifax data breach put a spotlight on web-application vulnerabilities, which can be used to target any organization with an internet presence. An alarming 100 percent of web applications studied in a recent report was found to contain at least one vulnerability, with a median number of 11 detected per application.
Ideally, secure coding best practices would prevent vulnerabilities in web applications. But applications typically contain more than 40 components, many of which are likely to be open source elements that are not effectively tracked or managed, and come with their own vulnerabilities. This makes it difficult to comprehensively address security concerns before releasing software.
Hackers have embraced the use of automation to scan applications for vulnerabilities and use application layer techniques that include, but are not limited to, SQL injection (SQLi), cross-site scripting (XSS), cross-site request forgery (CSRF), and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to target web applications and attempt to extract sensitive data.
Protecting your organization’s applications and traffic is imperative, but automated attacks can overwhelm existing security solutions. Next-Generation Firewalls, Intrusion Prevention Systems and other traditional network security products have proven ineffective against web-based threats.
Learn how you can you effectively protect web applications in 3 Keys to Web Application Security.
