Data breaches cost American businesses millions of dollars each year and the number of malicious or criminal attacks is on the rise. Network security weaknesses can create an easy path for cyber attackers to gain access and compromise sensitive data and applications.
Most organizations don’t test their software until it has been created and nears the deployment phase. This practice is ineffective and contributes to higher software development costs. Identifying and correcting network vulnerabilities is critical in protecting any organization from harmful attacks and should be used as part of an ongoing strategy to support an organization’s software development lifecycle.
A Web Application Vulnerability Assessment can help organizations identify vulnerabilities and provides a recommended approach to remediate these vulnerabilities based on industry best practices.
As part of the assessment, technical architects assume the role of an external attacker to attempt to exploit potential weaknesses. Comprehensive tests evaluate web applications source code against known exploitable vulnerabilities.
Based on results, recommendations for strengthening the source code to reduce the possibility of exploits by an attacker are provided. The survey results include analysis of vulnerabilities such as:
- SQL injection
- Cross site scripting
- Cross site request forgery
- Buffer overflows
- Weak authentication
- Improper data sanitation
- More
- Increase sales of network security software and appliances
- Identifying risks before it becomes a problem builds “trusted advisor” relationship with customer
- Unbiased, third-party assistance designed to achieve the best possible outcome for the customer based on analytics
- Increased margins through an expanded services portfolio
- Fixed price services eliminates surprises and provides predictable costs
According to the Ponemon Institutes annual benchmark study on the cost of data breach incidents for companies in the U.S., the 2014 study reports:
- The cost of a data breach and the cost per lost/stolen record has increased.
- Malicious or criminal attacks rather than negligence or system glitches were the main causes of a data breach.
- Organizations that had a strong security posture or formal incident response plan in place, the average cost of a data breach was reduced.
- The probability of a material data breach over the next two years is nearly 19%.
- Obtain true understanding of the network security gaps and vulnerabilities and how to enhance the organization’s security posture.
- Ability to view the organization as it would be seen by a cyber attacker.
- Identify which risks which should matter most to the organization.
- Achieve compliance for the many regulations and standards that require vulnerability assessments.
- Help to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability of data and assets.