What is Web Application Security and Why is it Important?

by Timothy Chiu, VP of Marketing on January 7, 2021

If you’re new to web application security and you’re looking for a primer to get yourself educated, there’s a recent article published by the EC Council that covers the basics of what web applications are, why web application security is important. While the world has been focusing during the COVID-19 pandemic on ransomware, phishing, and other security risks of working from home, web application security probably hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. Web application security security is more important now in this new world we find ourselves in, where employees are working from home in greater numbers than ever, and accessing data, tools, and collaborating directly over the internet, using web applications. The other reason web application should be of concern is the growing numbers of vulnerabilities making it into production code in web applications. 2020 was the fourth record year of the number of vulnerabilities recorded into the US-CERT Vulnerability Database.

The article covers 3 of the main reasons why web application security is important, along with a list of the top risks to web applications. The reasons why application security is important is a good reminder of why organizations need to provide a greater focus on web application security during all phases of application development through to production deployment and runtime.

The 3 reasons why web application security is so important include 1) preventing the loss of sensitive data, 2) understanding that security is about more than just testing, and 3) security is required to maintain business reputation and minimize losses (the cost of a hacked business can be more than just financial). The article goes into more detail on each of this providing some statistics as well about the numbers of attacks there have been.

The article then goes on to cover the OWASP Top 10 Web Application Security Risks, and a reminder that organizations need to ensure the web applications are protected from these risk. Having network security and system security (Firewalls and EDR for example), isn’t sufficient to protect your application from the OWASP Top 10.

With the increase in vulnerabilities and the increase in cyber attacks, along with the advanced nature of these threats, organizations may need to re-evaluate their approach to protecting applications that are likely to have vulnerabilities that can be exploited. While many organizations already have system and network based security, it’s important to remember to have a security framework that offers a defense-in-depth architecture and covers the OWASP Top 10. Maybe it’s time to take a hint from the recent finalization of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s SP800-53 that was just released on September 23, 2020. The new security and privacy framework standard now requires Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP) as an added layer of security in the framework.

RASP solutions like the one from K2 Cyber Security offer significant application protection, including protection of vulnerable applications, while at the same time using minimal resources and adding negligible latency to an application. K2 Security Platform uses runtime deterministic security to monitor the application and has a deep understanding of the application’s control flows, DNA and execution. By validating the application’s control flows, deterministic security is based on the application itself, rather than relying on past attacks to determine a zero day attack. Deterministic security results in the detection of sophisticated zero day attacks and also protects from application from the risks listed in the OWASP Top Ten, including XSS and SQL Injection.

K2’s Next Generation Application Workload Protection Platform addresses today’s need for runtime security in an easy to use, easy to deploy solution. K2’s unique deterministic security detects new attacks without the need to rely on past attack knowledge, is lightweight, and adds under a millisecond of latency to the running application. To aid in quick remediation of vulnerabilities, K2 also provides detailed attack telemetry including the code module and line number being in the code being attacked, while at the same time integrating with leading firewalls to do real time attacker blocking.

Change how you protect your applications, and check out K2’s web application and application workload security solution and evaluate K2’s effectiveness at detecting and protecting your organization from attacks.

Find out more about K2 today by requesting a demo, or get your free trial.