Despite the fact that application

security has become an

increasingly major concern in

recent years, many application

development teams treat security

as an afterthought.

The answer is

Software Analysis and

Measurement (SAM).

While each individual

organization has different

needs, there are few

important criteria that you

need to know when managing

application security.

Since design flaws account for 50% of all

security problems, a holistic view of the

application is necessary to identify

architectural vulnerabilities.

To evaluate against industry best practices, the

data flow technology must be able to trace the

flow of the application data across different

tiers of the application and across different

technology stacks, right down to the database.

Many SAM solutions produce lists of violations

that number in the hundreds, if not thousands.

It important to also receive guidance that can

be used to prioritize these security risks based

on factors such as the importance of the rule,

the impact across a transaction chain, and the

propagation risk across the rest of the system.

Virtually all applications in active development

have a framework component to them. To be

effective, the SAM solution must be capable of

analyzing the framework stack of the

application and synthesizing the information in

the context of the overall application.

Building a Threat Model is one of the most

critical measures for all mission critical

applications, and should be considered for

virtually your entire application portfolio. To

build comprehensive Threat Models, it is vital

to have an accurate blueprint of the

application that maps all of the inputs and

outputs.

There is a vast body of knowledge, discussion,

and research on making applications inherently

more secure. One of the fundamental

requirements of a SAM solution is to ensure

that the application is compliant with the best

practices recommended by experts and

practitioners.

To be truly beneficial to the development

team, a SAM solution should not only identify

vulnerabilities in applications—it also should

ensure continuous improvement through

detailed explanations of identified

vulnerabilities along with the solution to fix it.

Executives require a comprehensive analysis of

security vulnerabilities that can be used to

determine the security risks within an

application portfolio. Having such a tool will

help with budget requests, project portfolio

management, resource prioritization, and

benchmarking internal and vendor teams.

SAM solutions:

Automate feedback to developers providing proactive protection and real-time education

Enforce compliance to industry standards and best practices

Help in complex Threat Modeling and enable management teams to assess application threat in an objective manner and help them make informed decisions

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