Web Application Mistakes That Lead To Security Risks

According to a research study conducted by WhiteHat:

· 8 out of 10 web sites have serious flaws

· 71% of Web sites are vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS)

· 30% are prone to information leakage

· 28% have predictable resource locations

· 26% are subject to content spoofing

· 21% have insufficient authentication

· 20% are prone to SQL injection

Alarming? Not really. What’s alarming is the whopping number of business owners who still consider web applications security an afterthought. This leaves space for disastrous mistakes that leave websites, web applications and practically all sorts of digital products open to mistakes.

In this blog post, our web application security professionals brush up on some of the most common mistakes that inevitably lead to security risks:

Lack Of Constant Monitoring

It is quite evident that web applications are evolving constantly. What is secure today may be vulnerable tomorrow.

This means that your typical annual scan compliant with PCI standards might be far from enough to stay protected.

Many companies fail to perceive web application security as a continuous, nonstop process. Many consider it as a one-time, annual audit inevitably leaving their infrastructure vulnerable to risks.

Considering Business Needs More Important Than Security

Breaches and hacks are a daily thing for businesses, even in cases where security systems have matured and are appropriately integrated across all applications.

It is only natural to forget about security when other issues are on the top of your mind. In any case, it is the business that covers salaries for IT staff and the business always has the final say. This also means that regardless of all frontline issues, the business should be able to take full responsibility for high tech breaches and consequent costs.

Overlooking Third Party Risks

Most companies roll out strict compliance guidelines for any third parties involved in their business, but often ignore the same importance to application security.

Consequently, attackers may choose to compromise the third party’s website and host malware on your applications. In reality, any third party involved is a trusted partner and hackers may achieve the same results by breaking through their website.

Why not avoid all these mistakes by partnering with a state-of-the-art web application vulnerability testing company? At Lean Security, we provide web application security testing and penetrating testing services! Get in touch with us to learn more today.

Testing For Application Security—Can You Skip It?

As technology continues to imbed itself in practically all aspects of our daily lives, the risk of crucial information—business and personal—being leaked becomes more real.

Many major companies like Google now offer massive cash rewards to hackers who can expose vulnerabilities in web applications and websites.

While traditionally, the internet was considered an entirely different world, it would make sense if we now call it a universe of its own.

Consequently, security isn’t just a major concern for individual users but also business owners who are trusted by customers to handle their confidential data.

The nature of data could range from contact details to credit card information and more.

Many would agree that data is the new currency and plenty of individuals are willing to risk anything to get as much of it as they can.

With all of these things in mind, it is now more important than ever that business owners invest in robust security testing plan for websites, application and all sorts of online products. Practically any online platform that stores, process and transfers key customer data should be adequately protected.

But You Need An End-To-End Approach

With a practically never-ending list of all reasons why you shouldn’t ignore security testing, it is clear that testing is now mandatory. But what methods will help business owners gain the right results?

Traditionally, many business owners considered application security an afterthought; doing it only once an application was completed. However, the field has evolved today. Many vendors are now utilising an end-to-end approach when it comes to security testing.

Even though many vendors utilise code scanners to conduct quick reviews, we advise not skipping a comprehensive manual review to identify each bug.

Lean Security’s approach is to test everything rigorously before deployment to later move to penetration testing. Even in cases where you have fully functional web applications, we conduct in-depth security testing to surface all sorts of vulnerabilities. With so much at risk for our clients, we consider the old adage ‘better safe than sorry’ truly applicable here.

Security Testing Is Like Anti-Virus—For Your Business

In its essence, security testing is more like anti-virus for your business. It helps ensure that everything keeps running smoothly. Whether you are small or medium business owner, you need enterprise level security to avert potential cyber attacks and also avoid a PR nightmare in the process.

Ready for your web application security testing? Get in touch with us to learn more about our services.

Major Challenges That Hamper Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is a part of the software testing process that helps identify how the application responds to various breaches and attacks. However, with technologies advancing rapidly, the threats are becoming more complex and even harder to avert.

This makes penetration testing an ongoing process, not one that is to be done merely on an annual basis.

However, just like everything else, experts conducting pen tests often face a variety of challenges that hinder their progress.

Here are some of the most common challenges we, as a leading penetration testing company, face when working with clients:

Logical Flow

Penetration testing on websites comes with its own set of challenges. Websites act differently. This often leads to dramatic changes in the penetration testing process.

For example, some websites might require visitors to go through a verification process before they can be redirected to the main page while others might require no authentication at all. This obviously impacts the testing process.

Session State Management

One of the most common problems for professionals conducting tests is to stay logged into a particular system while testing it.

Developers use a wide array of tracking systems to monitor traffic inflow into different software. Therefore, testers are required to manually define limitations according to the specific software testing parameters. More than often, attacking the software to check vulnerability will result in invalidation of the current session.

Custom URLs

Another challenge faced during the penetration testing of web applications is the presence of different URLs that act in varying ways when implemented.

While some of them are quite straightforward and can be tested in simpler methods, others expose testers to a dramatic number of possibilities in the types of attacks that should be tested.

False Positives or Negatives

It often becomes close to impossible to pinpoint the vulnerability that is associated with a specific software.

In addition to that, there is always the possibility of creating an attack for the test process that leads to a false positive or negative signal. Therefore, working further becomes difficult as the results are merely real. This often leads to overlooking underlying key problems.

These are some of the most important challenges faced by testers when performing penetrations tests on websites, web applications and software.

If you are looking for penetration testing services, work with a company that knows its way around all of these challenges and more. Get in touch with us to find out how we provide world class web security audits and penetration testing.

Boost Customer Satisfaction By Maintaining Web Security

There are many elements on the internet, who would like nothing more than to deface your website and place inappropriate content on it.

If a single one of those individuals (competitors or otherwise) has the resources, they can possibly take over your website and chase away customers.

Sometimes these individuals are your competitors but most of the times, they are just hackers trying to make a bit of money in the process.

Being a victim to one of these attacks could leave your brand name tarnished.

How Do Hackers Do It?

There is no one way to do it. In fact, there are hundreds of different tools and strategies hackers use to gain control of your website.

From security lapses in the operating system to unprotected web applications and even server security flaws, anything can be potentially used to gain access to your website. Regardless of the strategies, you should have adequate security protocols in place to protect your website.

Averting Website Defacement With Security

To prevent defacement, you will need to make sure that your data is adequately secured across your servers. Especially when looking for hosting provider, make sure that you keep security on top of the checklist. Don’t forget to inquire about degree of protection offered against website defacement.

At the same time, if you host a private server, consider using additional security measures. You can also go for co-location hosting options to avoid maintaining your own sever warehouse.

Avoiding Defacement With Securer Applications

If you avoid giving attention to your web application security, your servers are left vulnerable to exploitation. This is the reason why you should only use applications that are verified for security. You may also consider having your web applications designed by a team of professionals who are aware of your specific security needs.

Web Security and Customer Satisfaction

Web security is directly proportional to customer satisfaction. Only when customers are aware that your website implements top-notch security measures will they buy from you.

On the other hand, even in cases where a single security mishap surfaces, you may lose potential customers. The loss in revenue may take years to cover; not to mention the PR disaster you will need to fix.

Why not act proactively and keep your website and web applications protected? Give us a call to find out how our website security testing services boost customer satisfaction and interest in your business.

Why Choose Lean Security For Your Web Security Testing Needs?

At Lean Security, we are dedicated to protecting you, your business and your clients from hacks and data breaches. We provide proactive managed IT security solutions that are reliable, effective and hands down the best in the market.

According to a research study conducted by Kasperky, Australia accounted for 10% of attacked users and ranked 4th on the list followed by New Zealand and Brazil.

Even though hacks and attacks have decreased in number, thanks to business owners realising the importance of web application security, the threat remains.

To ensure that you stay on top of your game without having to worry about security, it is imperative that you conduct penetration tests, web vulnerability scans, and security testing on a regular basis. Doing so will not just help you surface the vulnerabilities in your web systems but it will also boost customer satisfaction and retention.

Particularly if you operate an ecommerce store, or provide a service that requires customers to pay online, you should consider beefing up security for your website and applications.

At Lean Security, we provide penetration testing and conduct rigorous web vulnerability scans, ensuring no gaps are left for hackers to come through. Our services are also aimed at highlighting the weaknesses of your IT infrastructure and applications so that you keep improving.

Here are a few more reasons why you should choose our services:

Completely Managed Services

We offer completely managed penetration testing services and vulnerability scanning services. Here is what’s in it for you:

· No need to hire additional IT technicians; we have all the professionals you need.

· You don’t need to install any software or hardware.

· Our services are priced around a pay-as-you-go model. This means you can start off small and eventually scale our services along as your business grows.

The Best In Tech

Our penetration testing technicians use modern techniques and open source tools that are guaranteed to give you the best results. Here are a few tools we use:

· Burp Suite – a highly reliable platforms to test application security.

· Metasploit – the leading penetration testing software in the market.

· Nessus Vulnerability Scanner – the most advanced and widely deployed vulnerability scanner.

· Netsparker – a false positive web security scanner

·  Qualys Vulnerability Scanner – Qualys provides cloud security for medium to large scale businesses.

·  SQLMap – Automatic SQL injection and database takeover tool

With online threats constantly evolving and breaches becoming more technical, it is important to invest in penetration testing service and web security to safeguard your business, boost profits and expand to new markets!

Call us at +61 (0) 2 8231 6635 or drop an email at info@leansecurity.com.au to learn more about our services.