Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

In its Interagency Report 7695, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defined an application as “a system for collecting, saving, processing, and presenting data by means of a computer.” This broad term covers enterprise applications, consumer applications, and even phone apps. Security is important in all these types of applications, but the focus is not always the same. Let’s explore how below.

When businesses think about maintaining cybersecurity, the first thing that comes to mind is often endpoint and network security. However, web application security is becoming increasingly important. There have been numerous high-profile attacks on web applications in recent years; in 2020, for instance, the Twitter accounts of famous people were compromised as part of a bitcoin scam.

IT workloads are increasingly moving to the cloud, changing the way organizations develop and deliver software. Deploying and running production systems is now separate from the hardware and network, infrastructure is defined through code, and operations are now part of cloud service APIs.

As insurance organizations look to attract and engage customers, the growing use of web applications has increased their cyber exposure and the risks of cyberattacks. In this benchmark study, we analyzed the attack surface of the top 10 insurers in Europe to highlight the common attack vectors and security weaknesses that could be exploited – from page creation method to vulnerable components – and our top tips for reducing web application security risks.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, organizations in all industries ramped up their digital transformation efforts to make online operations easier for their employees and customers. But with more and more organizations online, the digital attack surface is growing at a record pace. The more applications with vulnerable code, the more opportunities for a cyberattack. In fact, our research found that 76 percent of applications have at least one security vulnerability.

On May 12, 2021, President Biden announced an executive order to improve the nation’s cybersecurity. The order, which outlines security initiatives and timelines, calls for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to enhance the security of the software supply chain.