Sep 01, 2023
What is Application Security Automation?
Application security automation is the implementation of automated processes that streamline and enhance the security of applications throughout their lifecycle. It involves automating security testing, vulnerability scanning, code analysis, ticketing and continuous reporting to proactively identify and remediate vulnerabilities, improving overall enterprise application security.
This post discusses the challenges and benefits of application security automation. We will also explore how Brinqa leverages automation to enable application security posture management.
Why is application security automation important?
Applications are the backbone of modern business operations. However, manual security testing and monitoring alone cannot keep up with the scale and complexity of modern applications. With AppSec automation, you can:
- Enable continuous and consistent security assessments, vulnerability scanning and code analysis, allowing developers to detect and fix security flaws early in the development lifecycle.
- Promote efficiency by reducing the time and effort required to address security issues, thus minimizing potential downtime and data breaches. The FBI reports that potential losses from cyber attacks surged from $6.9 billion in 2021 to over $10.2 billion in 2022.
- Integrating policies, processes, applications and infrastructure throughout the software development lifecycle. This way, you can ensure that security practices are consistently applied across different development teams and projects, enhancing overall AppSec posture.
Benefits of application security automation
Automated security solutions integrated into development and deployment processes help organizations reduce vulnerability risks, promptly address threats and streamline security issue remediation. In fact, organizations with a fully deployed automation program detected and contained breaches 28 days faster than those that didn’t, resulting in a substantial cost savings of $3 million, according to an IBM report.
Here are three benefits of automating application security:
1. Cost and resource optimization
By automating labor-intensive manual tasks like code reviews and vulnerability assessments, security teams can optimize resource allocation, streamline workflows and allocate skilled workforce to strategic initiatives, effectively driving business growth and innovation while lowering operational costs. For instance, by automating the risk identification and remediation process, Brinqa enables faster resolution of high-risk security findings, optimizing time and resources for both security teams and product development teams, which has the added bonus of speeding up secure development of revenue-driving features.
2. Unified visibility into application security risks
Automation provides businesses unified visibility into application security risks. Brinqa’s platform leverages automation to seamlessly connect multiple data sources, including static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), software composition analysis (SCA) and more.
This automated approach ensures data synchronization in real time, consolidating all critical security information in one place. The platform also correlates this data with business context and threat intelligence, enabling you to proactively identify and prioritize vulnerabilities.
3. Proactive risk management
Automation enables proactive risk management by monitoring and addressing security gaps, raising automated tickets, defining risk priorities and preventing potential security incidents before they escalate.
Through automation, Brinqa empowers businesses to save valuable time, allowing them to reinvest efforts into proactively investigating exposures. Organizations can also leverage Brinqa’s automation to validate fixes when remediation tickets are closed. This way, businesses can reduce human errors associated with the remediation process and focus on risk management to prevent security incidents from escalating.
Limitations of AppSec automation
The degree to which automation can be implemented in application security is a critical consideration. In theory, it is possible to automate the entire process, even deploying the necessary fixes. However, certain aspects of application security risk management require human intervention and judgment. Complex threat analysis, strategic decision-making and addressing unique or novel security challenges often require the expertise of cybersecurity professionals.
Commonly automated AppSec processes:
- Continuous scanning and monitoring
- Application vulnerability prioritization
- Code validation and verification
- Security policy enforcement
- Compliance reporting
Automating application security with Brinqa
Assessing your security readiness against cyber threats is critical — and often an uphill task. But Brinqa’s platform has got you covered.
Brinqa’s platform automates data collection from security tools, application security testing (AST) scanners and threat intelligence feeds. As a result, Brinqa offers a comprehensive view of the application attack surface. The unified view enhances visibility, reinforces threat detection and enables proactive application security posture management. By automatically correlating security data with business context at scale, Brinqa reduces manual tasks, saving time and resources for critical functions like in-depth analysis and cyber risk mitigation, which ensures that there is clear alignment on what risks are critical to the business.
Automated ticketing workflows for efficient SLAs
Brinqa also automates ticketing, validation, exception handling and service level agreements (SLAs) enforcement. The platform intelligently groups related vulnerabilities, reducing ticket volume and directs them to the right owners for validation. This seamless automation empowers organizations to fix security issues faster and maintain SLA compliance.
There’s also bidirectional syncing with ticketing systems to ensure real-time updates. Automated inclusion of remediation instructions in tickets guides developers in resolving security issues efficiently.
Synchronized threat intelligence and remediation
Brinqa’s platform monitors your threat feeds, providing prompt alerts about emerging threats targeting applications. This proactive approach empowers enterprises to reinforce defenses before attackers strike, bolstering overall security posture. Our automated workflows also offer clear guidance for effective vulnerability remediation. Advanced analytics and customizable reporting provide actionable, data-driven insights.
Ready to automate application security?
From scheduling data collection to generating remediation timetables and producing reports, Brinqa puts you in control. With application security automation, you can more efficiently handle cyber risks and make data-driven decisions to safeguard your business effectively.
Want to know more about Brinqa’s AppSec automation capabilities? Request a demo.
Frequently asked questions
How does AppSec integrate with other security processes in a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy?
AppSec automation streamlines data sharing and response coordination by integrating with security information and event management (SIEM) solutions, vulnerability management and incident response tools. This approach allows for comprehensive threat detection, quick incident resolution and optimized security operations.
What are the top application security automation best practices within an organization?
When implementing application security automation, consider these four best practices:
- Assess your organization’s security needs and align the automation solution accordingly.
- Prioritize integrating automation into the entire application development lifecycle.
- Ensure seamless collaboration between security and development teams.
- Regularly update and fine-tune automation rules to adapt to evolving threats.
