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Need an AppSec Program Fast? Get with the Platform!

With software now at the heart of both business and life, the need for application security (AppSec) has never been more critical. If your software is at risk, so too is your business and the people using your software. However, as organizations rush to innovate and deliver on the promise of digital transformation, security and compliance are often left behind.

But building a robust AppSec program is a complex, time-consuming and resource intensive process. Many organizations simply don’t have the staff to handle this type of program, and while most developers today understand the need for better security, they don’t have the time nor the expertise to take it on. Just the process to identify, compare, procure and deploy the right AppSec scanning tools can take many months. Maintaining development velocity is the priority for developers. However, that velocity will be impacted if they need to invoke scanning tools within their DevOps pipelines, decipher the mountains of vulnerability data generated, and then figure out how to prioritize critical vulnerabilities for remediation based on business and compliance needs.

One way to address this problem is to deploy open source AppSec scanning tools. They’re readily available, with a proven track record. But open source AppSec tools on their own are not enough.

A viable AppSec program, requires a platform that makes these tools easy to use, enables a programmatic approach to AppSec throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC), delivers meaningful insights and scales with your business.

Get an AppSec program up and running fast that scales with your business

ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start is a SaaS platform that’s ideal for engineering and security teams who need a quick, easy and cost-effective way to jumpstart their AppSec program.

ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start provides the open source AppSec scanning tools (SCA, SAST, DAST and container management) needed to scan proprietary and third-party code throughout the SDLC. The tools are ready to run and can be centrally managed through the ZeroNorth DevSecOps platform.

Make AppSec transparent and friction free for developers

ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start can seamlessly connect CI/CD DevOps pipelines with the open source AppSec tools. It then configures them to scan the required application component (such as source code repositories, build artifacts, URLs, IP addresses and containers) based on policies. So, with ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start, there’s no need for developers to learn how to invoke or maintain the AppSec tools. ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start removes the complexity and manual work needed to connect, configure, orchestrate and maintain the open source AppSec tools within DevOps pipelines, helping to make the entire process transparent and friction free for developers.

Simplify remediation by drastically reducing the number of issues to triage and resolve

AppSec scanning tools typically generate vast amounts of vulnerability data.  However, each tool often uses its own taxonomy, format and naming conventions—which make it nearly impossible to standardize the data into a uniform format, to analyze and then accurately assess and report on AppSec risk.

ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start automatically ingests all the disparate scanning data into a central database and normalizes it into a common risk framework. It then aggregates, dedupes and compresses related issues to remove redundancy and minimize noise (such as false positives) to make the vulnerability data useable and operational for developers, and deliver meaningful insights and actionable business intelligence.

Through this data refinement process, ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start can compress thousands of issues from multiple tools into a concise list of vulnerabilities—in some cases achieving a compression rate of 90:1—making it far easier for developers to triage, prioritize and fix them. ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start even correlates static code analysis results to dynamic assessment results, to filter out inconsequential flaws in the code and enable developers to focus on remediating vulnerabilities that will create risk in the application when it’s deployed in production. ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start can then create streamlined remediation work tickets in Jira or any other tool your developers use.

SAST to DAST dashboard of the ZeroNorth Platform

 

Assess AppSec risk and track progress to more secure applications

ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start also provides a variety of dashboards and reports to deliver detailed, actionable and contextual information on the overall health and risk of the application portfolio, with drill down into the granular details on vulnerabilities within each application component.

These dashboards and reports allow viewers to fully understand vulnerabilities and their characteristics, including severity and number of occurrences to zero in on any problem areas. Through these reports users can also compare vulnerabilities in different applications or in proprietary and third-party code, track progress of remediation work and measure against SLAs, and assess productivity and code quality—and much more.

ZeroNorth dashboard

With this level of insight, business, security and engineering leaders can determine where to focus, prioritize and direct resources to address the areas of greatest risk for the business, as well as enforce accountability for AppSec.

So, as you’re starting your journey to DevSecOps, check out the ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start and see how it can help get your AppSec program up and running, quickly, easily and cost-effectively to improve application security and reduce risk. It is also a great way to demonstrate the strength of your AppSec program to customers and partners.

Learn more or schedule your personal demo here.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from ZeroNorth authored by Joanne Godfrey. Read the original post at: https://www.zeronorth.io/blog/need-an-appsec-program-fast-get-with-the-platform/