Is the data within your application safe?
In the first quarter of 2023 alone, 6 million data records were exposed online following data breaches. This is because hackers know that organizations store important data within applications.
They also know how valuable that data is. Most businesses today have some kind of application that their end users can use to log in. What can organizations that develop or rely on applications do to safeguard critical data that is stored within them?
We explore four data and cybersecurity strategies that are helpful for either preventing data compromises within apps or discovering incidents early.
#1 Have Robust Access Control
To prevent data breaches and unwanted access, restrict who can reach specific data at what time and for what purpose. Access control is especially important for the protection of sensitive and confidential information.
Every business sets its own unique mechanisms that govern access control. If you have an app that is used by a lot of people within the company, where they can log in to do their work tasks, set up role-based access.
Role-based access limits who can reach certain parts of the application. If a team member needs a database for their role, they should be authorized to access it and vice versa.
Also, if a company suffers a data breach, information about who used certain files and at what time can help them react and discover the source of an incident faster. Companies pair role-based access control with monitoring.
Pro tip: Combine access control with authentication methods on every application layer. One of them is multi-factor authentication (MFA).
MFA provides one more layer of security that a hacker has to go through. This is especially important for privileged accounts within the app.
#2 Add Web Application and API Protection (WAAP)
Hackers exploit poorly protected application programming interfaces (API) to gain illicit access to sensitive data. If undetected, malicious traffic can bypass traditional security solutions and install info-stealing malware within your application layer.
WAAP is a cloud-based solution that protects businesses against data breaches caused by vulnerable web applications and APIs. It’s suited for web apps that are linked to the public internet.
Some of the capabilities of WAAP are:
- Bot mitigation – to allow only white-listed traffic in the app
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection – to prevent disruptions of service the app provides
- Account takeover protection – to uncover illicit access early
- Next-Generation Web Application Firewall (Next-Gen WAF) – safeguards apps from a wide range of cyber-attacks targeted at the application layer
The problem with older solutions, such as traditional firewalls, is that they haven’t been built to defend applications against evolving threats.
WAAF is an essential security solution that can secure an application against known and new cyber exploits because it assumes that applications and attacks are ever-changing.
It continually learns about the application, organization, and new cyber exploits to provide more accurate and faster security.
#3 Introduce Strong Encryption
The best way to keep the data confidential is to make it unreadable with encryption. Three types of encryption for data are often used at the application layer include:
- End-to-end
- Data at rest
- Transport layer security
Versatile types of encryption protect data in different states – whether it’s actively used, in transfer, or at rest.
End-to-end encryption is integral for financial institutions or apps that use chat messages. This type of encryption encodes the sensitive data that could be intercepted within such transitions.
Data at rest refers to all the data that is stored within discs or siloed databases. It conceals this type of content with the encryption that is provided by the database.
The third type of encryption, or transport layer security, secures the data that is in transfer between client and server. That is, it encrypts it before the transition.
This prevents data leaks in periods when data is at its most vulnerable, i.e. when it’s in transit.
If threat actors manage to compromise the data that is either moved from one place within the app to another or stored and occasionally used, they won’t be able to use it without decrypting it first.
#4 Create Data Backups
In the case of a data compromise, data backups make a difference in whether you can continue operating and how fast you can recover following the attack. Backups minimize data loss and secure sensitive documents.
For example, ransomware is a cyber attack that often hits application layers. It locks either a certain part of the infrastructure or encrypts files that contain sensitive data – all to demand ransom in exchange for restoring access.
When encryption occurs, the ransomware attack has already escalated. The victimized business has already lost access to its data. The only way to get it back is to pay the ransom.
Therefore, for some types of ransomware, if your data is regularly copied and stored in a safe location, the threat actor loses that advantage.
Important note: Data backups also require strong encryption methods – in case advanced hackers reach or encrypt even data that is stored in backups.
Create a plan that details what kind of data will be regularly backed up, what kind of backup you intend to use, and when it is supposed to be backed up. Repeat it to prevent corrupted or lost data.
Protecting Apps Against Data Breaches Is An Ongoing Process
Cybercriminals know that the application layer is the sweet spot where most businesses store important data. If they’re vulnerable, apps also provide them with an entry point to your systems.
Regulating access control, WAAP, data encryption, and regular data backups are a couple of ways businesses can safeguard their application layers against compromised data.
It’s also important to continually patch vulnerabilities and secure the application against emerging hacking threats that might allow the hacker illicit access to key assets such as sensitive databases.
The post 4 Ways to Protect Your Data within Application Layers appeared first on Datafloq.
