Different types of application security such as firewalls, antivirus programs, encryption programs and other devices can help to ensure that unauthorized access is prevented. Companies also can identify sensitive data assets and protect them through specific application security processes tied to these data sets.

Application Security mean

Application security is one of several levels of security that companies use to protect systems. Others include operating system security, network security and end-point or mobile security.

All of these types of security are aimed at protecting clients and users of software from of hacking and malicious intent. In addition, application security is critical for mobile app stores, where hackers try to attach various kinds of malware to less vetted mobile apps.

Web Application Security

Web application security is the process of protecting websites and online services against different security threats that exploit vulnerabilities in an application’s code. Common targets for web application attacks are content management systems (e.g., WordPress), database administration tools (e.g., phpMyAdmin) and SaaS applications.

  • The inherent complexity of their source code, which increases the likelihood of unattended vulnerabilities and malicious code manipulation.
  • High value rewards, including sensitive private data collected from successful source code manipulation.
  • Ease of execution, as most attacks can be easily automated and launched indiscriminately against thousands, or even tens or hundreds of thousands of targets at a time.

Once an afterthought in software design, security is becoming an increasingly important concern during development as applications become more frequently accessible over networks and are, as a result, vulnerable to a wide variety of threats. Security measures built into applications and a sound application security routine minimize the likelihood that unauthorized code will be able to manipulate applications to access, steal, modify, or delete sensitive data.

Actions taken to ensure application security are sometimes called countermeasures. The most basic software countermeasure is an application firewall that limits the execution of files or the handling of data by specific installed programs. The most common hardware countermeasure is a router that can prevent the IP address of an individual computer from being directly visible on the Internet. Other countermeasures include conventional firewalls, encryption/decryption programs, anti-virus programs, spyware detection/removal programs and biometric authentication systems.

Application security can be enhanced by rigorously defining enterprise assets, identifying what each application does (or will do) with respect to these assets, creating a security profile for each application, identifying and prioritizing potential threats and documenting adverse events and the actions taken in each case. This process is known as threat modeling. In this context, a threat is any potential or actual adverse event that can compromise the assets of an enterprise, including both malicious events, such as a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, and unplanned events, such as the failure of a storage device.