Member Article

Expressing true application security

I recently stopped at a local café to quench my thirst. Unfortunately, the service was slow and I was given a weak cup of coffee in a flimsy cup, which leaked. The lid fell off, it was too hot to handle and it dripped on my shirt. Gazing at the sorry state, the whole experience was bad. It prompted me to think about recent conversations I have had. If application security was managed in the same way, business performance would be tardy, data would easily escape, customers would complain and crucially the operation would incur a costly mess.

I like my coffee strong and served in a durable cup. Sometimes I add milk and occasionally sugar. Yet, the more ingredients you add the more complex it becomes to get the blend right to meet my tastes. Similarly, many companies have network architectures, which are too complex and fragile to withstand the enormous demands placed upon them today. Increased on-line traffic, greater use of mobile devices and relentless cyber-attacks are adding further strain on the infrastructure reducing the performance of vital applications and services.

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. Firms today cannot compromise on application security or indeed cloud strategy.

Stirring times

We live in a device driven world where we are reliant on an ecosystem of the internet of things (IoT) that help us manage our daily activities, including remote working, accessing bank accounts, monitoring the latest news or simply trying to find a decent coffee. IoT devices were never designed with security in mind and this can leave businesses vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Yet, the very thought that consumer goods, such as a coffee machine, could play a role in disrupting service may have seemed implausible a few years ago, but the concept is no longer science fiction. Distributed denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks can now take down websites and even affect industrial and household goods by flooding them with unwanted traffic, such as high attack volumes that today can exceed 100 Gbps.

Companies need to plan their IT strategies more effectively in relation to cloud computing, mobile workforce, attacks threat and maintaining cost efficient services to ensure their applications are safer and protect valuable data. Interestingly, more than two-thirds of CIOs and IT professionals believe mobility will impact their business as much as the Internet did in the1990s. This is not an exaggeration given that IDC predicts there will be 30 billion mobile devices in use worldwide by 2020.

Cybersecurity is challenging the way businesses manage their risk strategies. Souring the pleasant flavour of technological progress is the daily grind and exponential increase in ransomware and automated botnets that companies need to tackle. Many CISOs and executive leaders are left spluttering in their coffee cups asking how they can outsmart the hackers and mitigate breaches to keep application services secure and operational.

Threat intelligence positions organisations at the forefront of risk management and with the right solutions in place, decision-makers are better equipped to run their businesses with confidence knowing services are operational and customer data is protected. Interestingly, I have seen many enterprises struggle to maintain proper security controls when employees are working remotely and logging into internal company systems. This is reflective of many employees who now often operate from home or travel regularly working from cafés or airports equipped with public Wi-Fi. Bringing your own device (BYOD) also presents challenges whereby equipment may already be infected with malware and trojans. Businesses must look to secure everything that connects to the network, from endpoints through to administrator logins.

Like gazing through a café latte, lack of visibility and control adds to the complexity for IT departments and this leaves firms vulnerable to advanced security threats. CISOs and their security teams around the globe are frantically scrambling to keep pace with the changing threat landscape. As I sat back in the café and grumbled about my drink, the message was clear. Many businesses need to take a new approach and rethink their security architectures. Mitigating risk by authenticating and authorising the right people with the right device to the right information is essential to access applications securely. Many traditional defenses are ill equipped to provide visibility into encrypted traffic on the network and can leave applications containing vital data exposed to cyber-attacks. Therefore, the key to successful security should be based around the application whether it is in the datacentre or in the cloud. Similarly, crafting a cybersecurity strategy is like selecting and preparing the best grade of coffee beans. There is no point opting for a fluffy cappuccino when an espresso is stronger and faster. In the same way that your apps need the right combination of robust security solutions to perform optimally for employees and customers.

Savouring success

Application security is about achieving the right blend of technology and service capability. To solve today’s business mobility challenges and mitigate against the threat landscape, companies require a comprehensive ecosystem of security solutions featuring digital workspace experience with full access management functionality, firewalling, load balancing, cloud architecture, application acceleration and policy-based controls. Additionally, an effective intelligence function enables companies to quickly identify potential threats and vulnerabilities. The approach of anticipation, collection, analysis and prevention filters threats and vulnerabilities, which limits costs and damage to brand reputation.

Like a premium jar of coffee, the perfect ingredients are crafted and sealed to protect the contents and to ensure a quality experience for ultimate customer satisfaction. Similarly, firms must recognise that securing applications in their operations are vital to safeguard data, so that services can perform faster, smarter and safer. With the knowledge that companies today can easily adopt robust application security solutions that will secure their data, that cloudy cup of coffee now tastes much better.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Michael Brown .