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What to Do When You Need AppSec Right Now

It’s 2020. If you’re developing applications, you need application security. Period.

This is an important message with high stakes. Yet, because we live in a world where things move fast, teams are stretched, budgets are tight and the pressure is on to deliver, it’s no surprise many organizations don’t have the type of bulletproof AppSec program they need in place. Whether you’re starting from scratch or are in the process of building out a security program, a single vulnerability in the software development lifecycle (SDLC) can jeopardize the security of an entire application.

The Barriers to Fast AppSec Implementation

The modern software development lifecycle is complex. Continuous integration and continuous delivery mean you need to be continuously scanning for vulnerabilities. You need to close the security chasm and avoid potential risk to critical business applications, including the overall impact on business. But there’s cost, time and complexity associated with onboarding your first vulnerability discovery tools. So, you need a variety of resources to successfully execute consistent, comprehensive security scans. All this can lead to serious security paralysis when trying to institutionalize an implementation policy.

You’d think this calls for careful planning and meticulous implementation of a comprehensive program for risk-based vulnerability orchestration across applications and infrastructure. You’re not wrong, but you can’t wait. So, what’s a Dev or Ops team to do?

Open Source to the Rescue

Here’s some good news. Companies with an emerging or growing AppSec and vulnerability management program can bootstrap their efforts with open source software (OSS). No commercial offerings required. Companies can use a wide range of OSS scanning tools to quickly integrate across all phases of the SDLC and immediately reduce business risk. There are software composition analysis (SCA) tools to automate visibility into open source components. Static application security testing (SAST) tools analyze developers’ code, and dynamic application security testing (DAST) looks for vulnerabilities in deployed software. And open source cloud management scanning can validate the security of applications deployed across AWS environments.

Get Started Fast

Using open source tooling for rapid AppSec enables you to jumpstart and accelerate critical security initiatives without taking a big bite out of your two scarcest resources: money and time. The scanning tools are free—it doesn’t get any more cost-effective than that. And without the complex onboarding typically associated with commercial toolsets, you can deploy application security programs rapidly.

Set the Foundation for Robust AppSec Across the SDLC

Of course, this is just the first step in building a robust, closed-loop “discovery and remediation” process across your organization, but it is a big first step. Immediately plugging your AppSec gaps gives you a head start on integrating application scanning across the SDLC to ensure business risk is managed effectively. From there, you can focus on building out your program to better manage overall business risk and drive security into DevOps with capabilities such as compression and ingestion to prioritize units of development work, target discovery and application mapping, security governance through policy configuration and more.

ZeroNorth Makes it Even Easier

ZeroNorth’s solution for Rapid AppSec delivers a set of out-of-the-box OSS scanning tools to help address security through all phases of the SDLC, including both developer and third-party components. By embedding these tools directly within the platform, you can get started even faster—and you’ll use a central platform to manage all those AppSec scan tools and to help prioritize areas of risk across the SDLC.

See Rapid AppSec in Action at the RSA Conference

Visit the ZeroNorth booth (#5360 in Expo Hall North) to get a demo of our risk-based vulnerability orchestration platform around Rapid AppSec and Open Source Tooling. You’ll see first-hand how you can reduce business risk by quickly integrating security scanning across the SDLC and how, with open source scan tools embedded directly within the platform, you can jumpstart critical initiatives without the need for commercial offerings. If you’d like to schedule a time to meet at the show, we’ve got an easy meeting request form available now.

Not going to RSA? No problem. You can request a demo of the Rapid AppSec solution at any time.


*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Blog | ZeroNorth authored by ZeroNorth. Read the original post at: https://www.zeronorth.io/blog/what-to-do-when-you-need-appsec-right-now/