What is Application Security?

The term application security refers to all the practices that are aimed to protect applications from security threats, starting from design and through the development process, up to deployment and maintenance.

This refers to examining, minimizing, and preventing vulnerabilities that cybercriminals can use to attack the web-based application and disrupt its accessibility, integrity, and confidentiality.

This process involves many aspects from secure coding like regular code reviews to carrying out vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and using tools such as static and dynamic application security testing (SAST and DAST).

Application Security (Post-Deployment) Activities

• Post-deployment security tests

• Capture of flaws in software environment configuration

• The security of the software depends on the code as data (which may include the creation of backdoors and time-bomb-type attacks).

• Patch/Upgrade

• IP Filtering

• Lockdown executables

• During runtime, programs are engaged, and the policy of software use is being enforced.

What is Software Security?

Software security is a process of developing programming codes without leaving any holes or gaps which is the ultimate measure for its protection against threats and attacks.

Through application of various security measures at each step of the software lifecycle, secure coding techniques, threat modeling and test rigor, it is achieved.

Authentication and the implementation of systems and strategies for the protection of system and data confidentiality, integrity, and availability is the main objective.

This begins as soon as the software system is provided to the client and this includes the prevention of unapproved access and the protection of the system from any situations which may impair the system and/or the data security.

Software Security (Pre-Deployment) Activities

• Secure software design

• The creation of secure coding guidelines that developers can adhere to will be implemented.

• Developing secure configuration protocols and standards for deployment stage as well

• Processing and displaying of user input and by incorporation of a proper encoding algorithm.

• Secure coding that follows established guidelines

• User authentication

• User session management

• Function-level access control

• Use of strong cryptography to secure data at rest and in transit

• Arrest of any flaws in software design/architecture

Also Covers the Importance of Software/Application Security, Use Cases, and Major Differences to Know