The Silicon Review - Best Business Review Magazine 10 Best Security Companies 2019 | Page 34

Modern Web Applications and Their T he recent years have witnessed a constant increase in the number of security breaches. News regarding such activities is non-stop, and therefore, organizations need to realize that they have to fundamentally rethink their approach to protect their applications and data. It has been found that a significant amount of the security issues have come from a new generation of attacks that specifically target application programming interfaces, which have resulted in infringements at firms like Panera Bread, T-Mobile, Verizon, etc. In addition to that, even Google and the United States Postal Service (USPS) have been known to show some major API vulnerabilities. 34 What’s alarming particularly is that breaches of these sorts are hard to detect; sometimes they go undetected for months together and even years despite the fact that organizations have deployed advanced security systems and practices that are meant to safeguard them. The problem lies in the dependence of organizations on security approaches that used to work in many environments earlier. But times have changed now. The situations that existed before are fundamentally different from the ones that are prevalent in organizations now. Therefore, a new security perspective is necessary. Firms can opt for modern SaaS, mobile, web, micro- APRIL 2019 services and IoT applications that offer a wide range of assets and security levels for different areas. Applications Tend To Evolve With Time In earlier times, the applications and data that had to be secured were very simple when compared to the present day applications. Back then, basic and simple security solutions did the job of keeping hackers at bay while also offering broad and unmonitored access to authorized users. Their major components of defense were WAFs or typical web application firewalls focused on perimeter protection and guarding against known or predictable attacks, and that kept most of the hackers in search of undefended targets away. But, with time, the way in which modern applications are built and deployed has evolved so that they can function effectively in both small and large organizations. Even application programming interfaces have multiplied across application environments to enable a greater access to a much broader range of users. At the same time, the quantity and sensitivity levels of the data generated and transmitted by applications have proliferated. Today, performing complicated tasks can be done by just using a laptop and mobile devices with web browsers. This means that process that required to be handled on the server side behind the firewall have shifted to the client side making it more complex than ever. Increasing Complexity in Applications Increases Opportunities for Hackers Gradually, hackers have found out new ways to use the complexity and uniqueness of present day application structures to their advantage. And as every organisation and application has a unique vulnerability, this generation of security breaches can’t be identified by a signature. Moreover, it’s very tough for developers to think in the exact dubious ways that an attacker does as the expertise of a developer only centres on functionality and not security. Therefore, instead of expecting sound development practices aimed at nullifying security threats, protecting the modern environment with proactive ‘monitor and respond’ approach holds paramount importance. It’s completely unreasonable to have an approach that only focuses on secure perimeters and access controls. The APIs that form the core of today’s applications are as complicated and one of a kind as the environments to which they connect, and in their unique logic is where hackers find vulnerabilities and take advantage. So an effective