Exploited software vulnerabilities are one of the most common pathways for cybersecurity breaches. In an attack on Miami-based software provider Kaseya Ltd., hackers exploited vulnerabilities in the company’s virtual system administrator software. They were able to infect not only the company’s corporate system but also several of Kaseya’s customers’ systems.
In another ransomware attack, hackers used a compromised password for an inactive VPN account to breach Colonial Pipeline’s networks. Colonial had to shut down its entire fuel distribution pipeline along the East Coast of the United States. And the company paid almost $5 million in ransom.
With ransomware attacks against high-level organizations on the rise, application security and data protection are increasingly front of mind for companies. Fortunately, modern applications are built with security in mind from the ground up, making them more resilient to global security threats than traditional applications.
The modern application development process provides several advantages when it comes to data protection. Let’s take a closer look at them.
Security from the Ground Up
In modern application development, security issues are addressed as early as possible in the process, resulting in more resilient and secure applications. This methodology is known as DevSecOps, which incorporates IT security into the DevOps model. In a DevSecOps environment, security is a shared responsibility between the development, operations, and security teams.
Through this methodology, the security and compliance objectives of the project are defined from the planning stage, rather than introduced as an afterthought. Automation is then used to integrate security into every phase of the software development process—from the initial design through development, integration, testing, and delivery. This ensures the application’s compliance with the project’s security standards and requirements.
Using DevSecOps practices, application development teams address security issues as they occur. This vastly reduces the possibility of vulnerabilities making it into the released product.
More Secure Code
Bugs and vulnerabilities are the doorways hackers most often employ to infect an application. As a result, modern applications use security tools, processes, and frameworks to automate and enforce security procedures in code.
Continuous integration and testing during modern application development reduce the risk of bugs and errors that cause code vulnerabilities. Continuous testing implemented throughout the entire development process helps to ensure that bugs and vulnerabilities are caught early and fixed as they’re discovered.
In the continuous integration (CI) process, each code check-in triggers a build that runs unit and integration tests. Failed tests must be resolved before the code is moved to the next stage, aiming to ensure that faulty code doesn’t make it through other stages of development to production.
Code analytics tools and vulnerability assessments are also used to find vulnerabilities in functions, APIs, open source libraries, and modules that could lead to data loss or improper use of data.
Integrated Security Testing
Modern application development integrates security testing into the entire software development process. This ensures that software is thoroughly tested for vulnerabilities and code meets security and data protection standards. Some of the security tests that can be carried out include vulnerability assessments, acceptance tests, and dynamic and penetration testing.
Vulnerability scans confirm that no security loopholes are being pushed to production. Acceptance tests ensure that authentication and login features are working as they should.
Dynamic testing uses both automated tools and manual reviews to assess the functionality of running code. The tests analyze how the software behaves with different user permissions and during critical security failures.
Penetration testing can be carried out before software is released to find and detect vulnerabilities. You can use the results of these tests to make the software more robust and less vulnerable to exploitation.
Continuous Monitoring
Continuous monitoring is an automated process that gives developers and operations teams visibility into security threats and compliance issues at every phase of the development process. Once software is released, continuous monitoring processes can alert team members to any issues that arise in the production environment. These early warnings provide important feedback on the detected issues and alert the appropriate people so they can fix the issues as quickly as possible.
In addition, continuous monitoring provides real-time data and metrics on past and current issues. Teams can use this information to prevent potential risks and vulnerabilities in the future. It’s also helpful for implementing security measures like incident response, threat assessment, root cause analysis, and database forensics. All of these security measures play an important part in data protection.
Cloud-Based Environments
Modern applications are typically built on cloud architectures, which provide several important benefits for keeping data secure. For instance, with cloud-based environments, it’s easier for companies to maintain complete visibility across multiple environments, whether on a public, private, or hybrid cloud.
Application development teams can proactively monitor the cloud environment to identify security threats, malware, or suspicious user behavior and file activity. Disaster recovery tasks, such as replication, recovery, and reliable data backups, are easier. In addition, encryption and data reduction services ensure sensitive data remains secure.
Cloud-based environments also make it easier to define and automate security controls. These controls define policies and govern access to aid in the prevention and detection of data loss.
Modern Applications Require Modern Data Protection
To help keep your company’s data secure, consider switching to data infrastructure that’s designed specifically for the modern era. Pure Storage® can meet your data protection needs with solutions, including:
- Ransomware data protection and built-in data replication
- Fast, reliable data backup and recovery with FlashBlade® Rapid Restore, which delivers development, test, and production workloads with up to 270TB/hr of data-recovery performance
- Pure Storage® ActiveCluster™ for a true built-in active-active cluster with support for Ethernet and Fibre Channel
Leverage the benefits of modern data protection and disaster recovery solutions from Pure.
