Present Day Web Application Security Solutions And Its Benefits

Security is a mandatory requirement for websites, applications for operating these websites and for services that are provided by the websites. Development of Internet technology and advent of social networks on the latest version of Web have boosted sharing of information among the users of the Web. The availability of various types of information on the Web has prompted hackers and miscreants to try and get unauthorized information for personal monetary benefits. Companies are investing more and more money to keep their websites and network secure and safe from these hackers.

The Achilles heel of IT security

The web applications are the most vulnerable part of the whole IT infrastructure. They are being regularly attacked by hackers and fraudsters and need the maximum amount of security measures. The vulnerability of web applications can be any one of the following:

• Unrestricted URL Access
• Unsecured stored data
• Lack of enough protection for the Transport Layer
• Injection of SQL
• Attack by malicious code
• Injection of LDAP
• Cross Side Scripting or XSS
• Overflow of the buffer
• Unauthorized access
• Injection of "Carriage Return" and "Line Feed" characters
• A malicious attack called Cross-Site Request Forgery

The vulnerabilities are weaknesses of the application can be prevented by implementing Web Application Security Solutions. The solutions can detect the attacks when they occur and can nip them in the bud.

Reasons for security breaches

The number of devices like Token Based Authentication solutions which can be connected to the internet is sky-rocketing with every passing day. With this enormous increase, the chance of breaches from occurring is also increasing by leaps and bounds. Organizations are struggling to build strategies that can stop the breaches from occurring. The cost to the organizations takes huge proportions when the breaches take place. But before a solution can be implemented the organization has to care of some of the following causes:

• Benevolent people inside organization – well-meaning insiders who do not always comply with the security policies of the organization
• Malicious employees of the organization – people who hold a grudge against the organization or some other employee bypass the security policies of the organization purposefully
• Targeted attacks – attacks from external sources with the specific intention of destabilizing the organization

It has been found that most of the breaches occur due to a combination of these three causes.

Preventing the exploitation of vulnerabilities

Stopping the exploitation of the vulnerabilities of the web application in order to make the organization’s information completely secure is paramount. Implementation of Web Application Security Solutions provided by a large number of companies is the only way to keep your vital information within wraps.

I am Technology Evangelist. I am part of the core team of Authshield Labs and have been actively involved in research on information security vulnerabilities.