Why is Application Risk Management & Why Does It Matters

Businesses are rapidly transforming due to the immense use of software applications to get creative customer engagement solutions and manage routine activities. However, cybercriminals have more chances to exploit vulnerabilities in the system due to the enhanced usage of applications.

They become a prime target of cyber criminals based on the features that provide them space to add vulnerabilities. Organizations need a proactive solution to identify threats and manage risks in the software supply chain.

This article will briefly introduce ARM (Application Risk Management) for businesses, its best practices, and essential strategies to consider while implementing it.

1 What is Application Risk Management?

Application risk management is a security technique based on the fundamental risk management rules to utilize applications in businesses effectively. It helps enterprises identify, assess, deal with, and report on security risks in an organization's software infrastructure. Application risk management includes results from various testing and monitoring tools.

ARM might involve Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), Interactive Application Security Testing (IACT), Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Software Composition Analysis checks ‎(SCA), and Penetration Testing. ARM ensures high-security parameters to safeguard corporate devices by utilising IT Service Management (ITSM) tools and processes. Risk management is versatile in businesses and not limited to desktop or web applications. Enterprises can also manage third-party and open-source offerings up to COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) solutions, business process implementations, and enterprise systems using ARM.

Features of Mobile App Risk Management

Here are the significant features of ARM that help businesses in reducing the risks of mobile apps:

Risk Identification: ARM starts by doing threat modelling and finding essential assets step-by-step. It helps to find weaknesses and sensitive areas that could be attacked.

Risk Assessment: ARM ensures complete checks for vulnerabilities, scores the risks, and determines what can be damaging. It will help you know the problems that can impact the business.

Compliance Management: ARM ensures your app follows the rules and company security policies by always watching over it. It includes compliance with industry regulations of doing things.

Security Testing: ARM implements penetration testing, coding reviews, and DAST to ensure the app's security is not compromised.

Access Controls: Put strong rules for control access, like making sure people use safe ways for identification and rights. Also, follow the direction of having the least privilege.

Data Security: ARM helps protect data using encryption when it's shared or at rest, then sorts data depending on its importance.

Incident Response: It develops and keeps a plan for handling situations with proper monitoring to ensure they are dealt with effectively.

Secure Development Practices: ARM ensures secure coding standards and provides training for developers to implement the best security practices.

2 Why Does App Risk Management Matter?

Multi-sourcing

Businesses usually sign contracts with multiple third-party vendors to avail IT support for extensive business management. These services result in security gaps for hackers, providing them with ways to enter the system and exploit privacy wrongfully.

ARM provides the oversight required in multi-sourcing arrangements to minimize these vulnerabilities. It also helps implement firm security measures and ensure the integrity of an IT infrastructure, which might not be possible if an organization is not utilizing ARM.

Security Misconfiguration

Organizations might get attacked if security misconfigurations arise from insecure settings by default or when configurations have been only partially made.

With ARM, businesses can seamlessly identify configuration risks, incorporate vulnerability assessments, and utilize automated tools and checks to ensure adequate configuration of apps.

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Malicious scripts injected into trusted sites by user input significantly threaten web application security.

Application risk management takes web access control further to reduce XSS risks. It emphasizes implementing mechanisms in web applications for verifying and encoding user inputs to guard against illegal exploitation from outside effectively.

Insecure Deserialization

Risks associated with insecure deserialization involve attacks that manipulate application logic or facilitate remote code execution.

ARM is crucial in addressing these risks by implementing measures to safeguard against potential exploits, thus maintaining the integrity of the application's behavior during and after deserialization.

Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities

The applications using components with known security vulnerabilities, including libraries and frameworks, can expose more to exploitation. 

Enterprises must continuously monitor and update the risks, which is only possible using ARM. Patch management, risk prioritization, and threat intelligence integration by ARM ensure high security against known vulnerabilities.

Insufficient Logging & Monitoring

Inadequate logging and monitoring are the characteristics of poorly secured systems. Attackers can break in, settle into the environment, and extract sensitive information quickly.

Application risk management provides application layered testing, improved robust logging and monitoring practices, and a combination of effective response procedures to ensure robust logging and monitoring.

Injection

SQL and OS injection are two variables that can lead to Injection flaws when untrusted data impacts command interpretation. One of the most effective ways to prevent injection vulnerabilities involves application risk management. 

ARM helps in taking steps to authenticate and cleanse users' input, sacrificing usability for security protection against intrusions by malicious parties.

Broken Authentication

Improperly coded authentication and session management functions can leak out confidential information. Effective authentication and session management are necessary conditions for securing applications; otherwise, unauthorized parties may see valuable information assets or be compromised.

ARM integrates Identity and Access Management (IAM) to manage user identities and control access. It also ensures robust compliance, session, testing, and configuration management to avoid broken authentications.

1 What Are the Steps to Implement Application Risk Management?

The processes of Application Risk Management are not entirely standardized and may vary with the industry involved or from company to company; even within a single business, each department might be liable to adopt different policies. Generally, there is a standard approach to evaluate and minimize risks. Here are the three basic processes involved in application security risk management:

4 Best Practices for ARM in Business

Containerization

You need to utilize containerization platforms to encapsulate applications and their dependencies efficiently. You can also integrate orchestration tools like Kubernetes to streamline containerized applications' deployment, scaling, and management. These tools automate processes, enhancing efficiency and consistency in application deployment.

Cloud Resource Management

Add cloud computing services to flexibly allocate resources according to demand and enhance efficiency or devices. You can use cloud services for auto-scaling, load balancing, and resource optimization. It will help you adapt to changing workloads, optimizing the overall utilization of the company's infrastructures.

Resource Monitoring Tools

Enterprises should use monitoring resources such as Prometheus and Nagios to monitor performance metrics continuously. It will help administrators manage and enable alerts to become aware of problems beforehand and respond quickly when necessary.

Configuration Management

By utilizing configuration management tools, businesses can automate resource provisioning and configuring. By seamlessly managing diversified infrastructure resources, they can ensure consistent and manageable security policies.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Apply the spirit of Infrastructure as Code in your company using various tools. It helps you define the infrastructure configurations, thus making environments easier to replicate. This approach improves reproducibility and traceability in infrastructure management.

Auto-scaling Policies

You should implement auto-scaling policies to manage numerous resources automatically. It might include CPU usage, custom application-specific metrics, and network traffic. You can also utilize various cloud services and tools for effective resource allocation by customizing scaling policies.

Caching Strategies

Improve system performance by reducing the workload of resources by deploying caching techniques. You can easily store and access frequently used data to generate instant responses using cache memory.

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

Distribute content geographically using content delivery networks so that the server workload can be reduced to optimize tasks smoothly. Providing static content on CDN servers enhances the response time and improves user experience. 

Database Optimization

Minimize the load on database servers by optimizing database queries. It also results in effective data retrieval. By implementing sharing strategies in database servers, you can enhance the performance and scalability of your organization's databases.

Security Automation

Use security management tools to strengthen security measures by identifying vulnerabilities and monitoring compliance. Remember to add proactive security measures for instant resolution of issues with reduced work. It will help you improve security and reduce risks in the overall development process.

5 Tips: Application Security Checklist

SQL Injection

To ensure the high security of applications, you must ensure the app leaves no space for SQL injections because it can quickly enter and exploit companies' privacy. To prevent it, utilize prepared statements and parameterized queries and never reveal sensitive data when you receive error messages. By incorporating web application firewalls, you can ensure your application is free from SQL injection risks.

Secure Your Password

Ensure your device contains high-level security features and authentications to prevent unauthorized access. You can select a password manager that does not allow master password improvements; otherwise, hackers can easily exploit the master password using various tools and access the data. You can also ensure the security of applications by enforcing two-factor authentication. Multi-factor authentication involves sharing a secure code on email or mobile numbers that are entered to access the devices. It provides an additional layer of security against unauthorized access to the account. Try using strong and unique passwords and turn off the auto-fill option to enhance security. 

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) in Application Security Vulnerability

XSS scripting enables attackers to execute the malicious javascript(JS) in the user's browser to gain wrongful access to the applications and organization's network. Types of XSS are Persistent XSS, Reflected XSS, and DOM-based XSS. If your application is safe from these vulnerabilities, your application is secure to use.

Avoid Distributed denial of service (DDoS) and insecure cryptographic storage

By avoiding DDoS, you can ensure your system can not shut down and remain accessible for authorized users. You can keep sensitive data safe on applications by enforcing strong data encryption. Avoid creating your algorithms for data encryption and use standard methods for data encryption that cannot be exploited.

Conclusive Note

Application Risk Management is one of the most influential and easy ways to ensure app security and maintain data privacy on corporate devices by preventing them from data breaches. It acts as a shield against cyber threats and meets compliance.

ARM ensures business continuity by enforcing strong security policies and measures, lowering costs, and building trust. Every business has three typical phases while implementing ARM, but their techniques might differ.

These phases include risk identification, assessment, and mitigation. You need to follow the best practices and security tips like containerization, cloud resource management, resource monitoring, configuration management, and data optimization to ensure effective risk management strategies.