Your Application Security Program May Not Work, And Here Are 3 Reasons Why.
One of the main factors that prevent organizations from taking action on application security is, first of all, they do not know where to start. However, even if the starting point is determined, even if the basic criteria are determined and a strategy is created, this does not mean that the security strategy will be successful. There are a number of common dangers that companies often overlook when building their security.
Here are the 3 most common pitfalls to watch out for and take precautions if you want success with your application security:
1 — Lack of policy enforcement
2 — Lack of expertise on how to reduce risk
3 — Failure to create a culture of security
Let’s talk a little bit about these three and get to know better these overlooked dangers that threaten companies.
Lack Of Policy Enforcement
IT teams can create strong application security policies to reduce the number of vulnerabilities in applications builted and purchased by the organization. However, if these policies are ignored or if teamworkers’ workarounds to problems become useless, they become useless in practice.
As well as application security principles, raising awareness of why policies are important and how they should be followed is vital. The most important thing is to establish concrete mechanisms that will ensure the implementation of policies.
Lack Of Expertise On How To Reduce Risk
Application security is quite different from other forms of IT security. Creating a security program requires a lot of planning, coordination and synchronization between teams. It is also very important to employ staff who are knowledgeable about risk reduction strategies, application development process and programming techniques. Therefore, these also require security professionals to be highly knowledgeable in their fields. It is only possible for the programs of organizations that work with competent security experts to be successful. Without partnering with these experts, the difficulty of making the right measurements and setting the right targets, as well as not being able to analyze the starting point and not knowing how to move forward, will be like trying to hit a target in the dark. As you can imagine, hitting the target will be very unlikely in this case.
Failure To Create A Culture Of Security
Making security a part of the organization’s culture is a crucial step in ensuring that application security policies are followed properly. Many organizations work long hours to build strong and practical application security, but experience failure as the rest of the organization underestimates and prioritizes this work. This is why it becomes so essential in effective security that all employees make security a rule and see it as a fundamental component of the organization’s existence. Creating a security culture starts with ensuring that all employees understand how security affects the entire organization and why it is every employee’s responsibility to adhere to security principles. Advanced application security programs require employees to be more cautious than they normally would, and therefore change many routinized actions. Without understanding the value of security, developers, software purchasers, and others in the organization will always look for ways to circumvent policies to make their job easier.
After all the effort put into building an application security program and incorporating it into business processes, the lack of understanding and poor policy enforcement to get that effort out of the way is really the last thing you want. However, this is more common than you might think. Making sure you have realistic policy implementations, working with people who are experts in mitigating risk, and creating an inclusive safety culture for everyone in your organization will take great strides to ensure the program achieves its goals.
