Cyberspace gets worse as bad actors launch fresh attacks daily. Despite the amount many organizations invest in security, cybercriminals still find loopholes. As a result, IT teams and end users are scared that their assets such as crucial projects, money, and sensitive data may be lost or breached. 

To gear up, IT teams do all it takes to maintain enterprise application security. Application development is a lot of work, and finished projects should not get into the hands of attackers. As IT teams pursue this goal, however, application security challenges are inevitable.

What Is Enterprise Application Security?

Enterprise application security means protecting your application from threats, hacks, or attacks. It also safeguards your application from unpermitted access, whether within your organization or outside. Once access is restricted to certain people, it will further prevent theft and exploitation, whilst improving data integrity.

IT team members use security techniques and software to protect applications. This protective measure often begins at the first stage of the application development cycle, through to the end. Some examples of attacks launched against applications are cross-site scripting, brute force, and SQL injection. Examples of application security controls are encryption, access control, and input validation. 

Common Application Security Challenges Enterprises Face 

Enterprises only hire professionals with a firm grasp of security. Yet, as skilled as these professionals are, they still encounter some difficulties and risks while they strive to maintain application security. Below are five common application security challenges:

1. Delay in Achieving Portfolio Coverage

Rolling out security tools for developers is difficult, especially when wanting to cover all applications in an organization. At GuardRails, we solve this issue through our automatic security integration process. The integration process works effectively with any programming language, database, or VCS (version control system) you choose. It also begins to operate immediately when you start coding. 

2. Application Management 

Proper application management requires ensuring automatic security scanning. Security scanning will check your application for loopholes or unauthorized changes. This security scanning process employs automated tools to audit, log, and report any security issues found in your application. Scanning for security issues automatically is easy with GuardRails and it helps developers to find, fix and prevent vulnerabilities.. 

3. Inefficiency of Tools

Most application security tools in the market are incapable of empowering developers. More often, these tools only cause alert fatigue. In this situation, developers become desensitized—they miss alerts or respond late. Additionally, when software developers cannot interact with security tools, it becomes a big problem. Often, only security teams can access tools and run scans, leaving developers with PDF reports of those scans. 

Our JIT training can help fix this challenge. The training empowers developers to identify and assess vulnerabilities, and ultimately fix them. Once a developer attempts to fix a security issue, the tool should be able to check if it was correctly implemented. 

4. Non-clarity of Enterprise Application Security Solution

Developers often become indecisive about which tool to use or enterprise application security scanning solution to pick first. Instead of wondering which tool or solution to use first, developers should have access to an all-in-one solution. With GuardRails’ help, your development team will not remain stuck with a solution that supports only one scanning technique. We offer modern security solutions covering every security aspect. This way, you don’t have to choose but get the best information immediately.

Figure 1: A Pyramid Showing the AppSec Testing Tools

5. Configuration Issues

Configuring tools and security solutions often pose a challenge to developers. This is because developers can only run scans and export the results. At GuardRails, we offer the support needed to adapt enterprise application security solutions to your organization. We also help your tools become configurable in a way your organization finds sensible.

5 Effective Ways to Maintain Enterprise Application Security 

Below are five effective ways to maintain enterprise application security:

1. Employee Education 

The first step is keeping your team abreast of enterprise application security issues common with applications. The fact that they are security engineers does not equate to knowing it all or being infallible. Bring your team up to speed with the latest attacks ravaging cyberspace and security trends that can stand up to them. Furthermore, extend this educational process to other employees in your organization. Show them how to react when they come up against security threats.

2. Block Loopholes

Loopholes are channels through which cyber criminals can penetrate and attack your application project. So, to maintain enterprise application security, fix these loopholes in your project(s). Techniques for discovering security loopholes include vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, and security scanning. 

3. Adopt Cloud Computing

Use the cloud to protect your application. There are different cloud service providers (CSPs) or platforms you can choose from. The platforms support building, deploying, and securing applications over the internet. 

4. Automate Security Processes

Security practices have evolved, and there is now a better approach to how teams can maintain enterprise application security. Automated security processes use tools to detect, find, and tackle threats without having humans manually perform these functions. 

5. Access Control

Controlling access to sensitive data and application is crucial. Your application should not be accessible to every employee at all levels in your organization. Restrict access to systems, files, or cloud platforms that house your applications. With this in place, you’ll minimize risks. 

Overcoming Application Security For Your Business

Maintaining enterprise application security is a tough process for development teams. As much as they strive to maintain security, they face several challenges. The bright side is that there are solutions to stay ahead of these challenges. Adopting these five tips to maintain enterprise application security can help. 

The post 5 Application Security Challenges for Enterprises, Solved appeared first on GuardRails.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from GuardRails authored by GuardRails. Read the original post at: https://blog.guardrails.io/5-application-security-challenges-for-enterprises-solved/