Web Application Security

What is Web Application Security?

Web Application Security is the process of securing web applications and websites from security threats and vulnerabilities. Web applications are often targets of threat actors since the attacks can be easily executed and can oftentimes contain sensitive information. Since most web applications are exposed to the public internet an attacker has the ability to automate their attacks against many web applications easily.

Some of the more common risks found in web applications include:

• SQL Injections
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
• Sensitive Data Exposure
• Security Misconfiguration
• Lack of Logging in Monitoring

How Can You Secure a Web Application?

Ensuring that your web application is secure starts from the beginning. Security needs to be baked into the web application from the start of development and properly maintained after being put into production. Secure coding best practices should be implemented throughout the development lifecycle.

Data encryption is also a very important aspect that needs to be implemented. Since threat actors are looking for high priority targets, including those that contain sensitive information, that information needs to be encrypted. Encrypting sensitive information will help keep it protected from unauthorized access.

A good way to monitor a web application for suspicious or anomalous activity is to have auditing and logging in place. Having proper auditing and logging in place will provide insight into user activity, potentially suspicious, and other application errors.

Proactive testing is a great way to identify security flaws and vulnerabilities in the web application. A testing strategy that includes manual and automated testing, such as penetration testing and vulnerability scanning, can provide developers insight into potential vulnerabilities that threat actors would be looking to exploit.