WEB APPLICATIONS UNDER ATTACK THROUGHOUT 2009
Web applications are now the most targeted avenue of attack into a company’s business systems, and analysts predict this will continue throughout 2009. The cause? Insufficient security practices and exploitable application code.
What’s disturbing about this prediction is that hackers have been very successful in finding new ways to bypass current security measures by actively analyzing Web applications for vulnerabilities. Their efforts will continue to expose more organizations to significant risk and unless companies maintain consistent security vigilance, the number of breaches is sure to go higher as more hackers gain access to confidential data.
Access is typically achieved through weaknesses or errors in system design, exploited information leakage such as developer comments or messages, Cross-site scripting, SQL Injections, and insufficient access controls, to name a few ways.
How can you remediate and protect your business against attacks? One way to counteract this threat is to conduct application vulnerability testing throughout the lifespan of your application. Web applications are dynamic and many are constantly changing. Web Application Testing will not only find security holes in the software, but verify their absence.
Companies and financial institutions cannot afford to get a false sense of security because of a PCI audit certification. We all have heard about too many companies, such as TJ Maxx and Hannaford Bros. supermarket, which were PCI DSS certified compliant and still got breached. Information security is continually evolving and many companies do not realize that their corporate assets may be exposed. |
