What is Application Security Risk?

If you have ever considered how hackers and other cyber attackers on the internet use different paths to harm systems and software, you already know a bit about what application risk means. While understanding the essence of risk—and what it can do to the business—is critical, it’s also important to visualize how the notion of security risk is impacted and affected by other areas of threat and vulnerability. Much like a mathematical equation, the relationship between threat, vulnerability and risk sits at the core of application development and security.

In the security world, application risk is defined as “the potential for loss or damage when a threat exploits a vulnerability,”[1] such as the loss of money or privacy. A security breach begins when a bad actor incites an incident with the power to threaten an application. When this threat finally manages to penetrate the system and/or compromise code, a vulnerability emerges indicating a point of weakness—otherwise known as a security gap. And when organizations find active vulnerabilities in their systems and applications, this incurs heavy risk to the business.

How to Manage Risk

In today’s digital landscape, successful businesses must be secure ones. There is no middle ground anymore. Organizations can reduce the potential for application risk and build more secure software by creating and implementing a risk management plan. Newer businesses or those who have grown quickly often find their risk management plan is not comprehensive enough to protect them and their valuable data. What they really need is a risk management program with the ability to connect various plans and projects into one larger collaborative effort. For example, when security and development plans come together in the form of DevSecOps practices, vulnerabilities are managed more effectively through timely remediation and risk is essentially lowered.

Security risk management does not have a beginning and an end—it is an ongoing endeavor seeking to reduce the overall risk exposure of a business over time. Threats never sleep and neither should security. That is why organizations are best served by approaching risk management through the development of an effective AppSec program designed to mitigate risk through a set of controls and business functions. This model supports the discovery, remediation and prevention of application vulnerabilities and ensures the secure development of software—along with the technology and operational practices needed to implement them.

ZeroNorth Understands Risk

Building out a robust AppSec program to address risk does not have to be a complex, time-consuming or expensive ordeal. Despite the velocity of software development, it is possible to invoke scanning tools within DevOps pipelines to decipher vulnerability data and prioritize critical weak points for remediation. All you need is the right DevSecOps platform to help manage the different security scanning tools you have, both open source and commercial, and enable a programmatic approach to security throughout the software development life cycle.

ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start helps engineers and security teams jumpstart their AppSec program and lower organizational risk. It provides the open source scanning tools (SCA, SAST, DAST and container management) needed to scan code throughout development. With this capability, all tools can be effectively run and managed.

Find out how our DevSecOps platform can help your organization:

• Stand up or build out a fully scalable AppSec program
• Make security transparent and friction free for developers
• Simplify remediation by reducing the number of issues to triage and solve
• Assess AppSec risk and track progress to more secure applications

So, as you’re starting your journey to DevSecOps, check out the ZeroNorth DevSecOps Quick Start offering and see how it can help get your AppSec program up and running, quickly, easily and cost-effectively to improve 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.

[1] IT Security Vulnerability vs. Threat vs. Risk: What are the Differences?