The exponential growth of technology has made organizations and individuals embrace the cloud for its flexibility, scalability and cost-effectiveness. In a world where business practice seems to be upgrading by shifting to cloud-native solutions, adopting cloud services is increasing because all businesses want to future-proof their use of technology and operations.
As organizations move applications to the cloud, the requirement for comprehensive cloud application security testing becomes critical. With the rising complexity of modern infrastructures, securing application security from emerging threats is a top priority.
Modern cloud application security is essential for organizations adapting to digital transformation, integrating intelligent, automated solutions with cloud-native operations and DevSecOps workflows.
With platforms like HCL AppScan on Cloud (ASoC), organizations can now implement continuous security monitoring and real-time vulnerability detection for cloud-native applications and other software environments, ensuring they stay ahead of the threat landscape.
It’s important to understand that cloud security encompasses broader aspects beyond application security testing. ASoC includes numerous cloud-specific features, like container scanning, but its capabilities extend to a wide range of application security measures, not limited to cloud-native environments.
Conventional security measures are no longer effective in a cloud-based ecosystem where threats evolve rapidly. Security testing has evolved from periodic assessments to continuous, automated methods that work perfectly with contemporary cloud infrastructure.
Organizations are shifting towards dynamic application security testing to address the specific issues associated with both cloud and non-cloud environments.
To stay ahead, businesses must consider emerging trends that will change how they manage cloud application security.
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Trends in Cloud Application Security Testing Shaping the Future
Staying ahead of emerging cloud security trends enables you to mobilize against potential threats and proactively integrate strategies or approaches to ensure your software remains secure.
It’s important to understand the shared responsibility model, where the cloud service provider secures the underlying infrastructure, but organizations are responsible for securing their applications and data.
This highlights the complexities and challenges posed by this shared responsibility. Introducing robust cloud security solutions is essential to address vulnerabilities and mitigate risks associated with applications, including those hosted in cloud environments. Below are key trends you should monitor closely:
Hybrid Cloud Solutions
Hybrid clouds tend to become the first choice for modern businesses as cloud adoption matures. Hybrid clouds offer greater flexibility and cost-effectiveness while increasing scalability to meet the growing demands of data, with all the benefits derived from the public and private clouds.
This approach allows organizations to optimize infrastructure for different workloads—using public cloud resources for high-demand applications while maintaining security and control over sensitive operations and data in a private cloud.
AI and Machine Learning Integration
Businesses increasingly leverage AI and machine learning for faster, more precise detection and response to cyber threats. HCL AppScan on Cloud utilizes machine learning to deliver quicker, more comprehensive scans, improving accuracy and reducing testing time.
With features like the AppScan Slider for SAST and DAST, organizations can balance speed and coverage, optimizing security testing across different stages of the DevOps pipeline.
As organizations face increasing cyber threats, adopting application security software has become a vital defense strategy. Additionally, integrating AI and ML enhances the effectiveness of security measures, driving significant market growth.
Diverse Security Testing Methodologies
Application security testing involves a range of methodologies, each serving a specific purpose—from detecting vulnerabilities in source code to analyzing real-time application responses to threats.
HCL AppScan on Cloud leverages comprehensive testing technologies, including SAST, DAST, IAST and SCA, to ensure broad coverage, correlated results and faster, more targeted remediation.
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
HCL AppScan’s Dynamic Application Security Testing performs security scans for web applications across production, staging, and development environments.
From pre-configured workflows for basic scans to advanced test optimization and incremental scanning, HCL AppScan DAST empowers developers to integrate security into their IDEs, CI/CD pipelines, and development environments.
It monitors specific traffic activities and correlates security findings, ensuring a thorough analysis. Additionally, DAST can be integrated into unit tests, helping developers reproduce, validate and fix security issues efficiently.
Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
SAST enables developers to identify vulnerabilities in source code and seamlessly integrate security into development via IDEs and CI/CD pipelines. HCL AppScan SAST utilizes AI/ML with Intelligent Code Analytics (ICA) to enhance scan coverage.
ICA automatically discovers new APIs, reviews third-party APIs and frameworks, and assesses their security impact. Additionally, SAST identifies sensitive information, such as secrets, credentials, social security numbers and API keys that developers may accidentally store in code repositories during development.
Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)
IAST continuously monitors live applications and APIs, detecting and addressing real-time vulnerabilities. It integrates with Software Composition Analysis to gather data from open-source packages used in API development, providing critical insights into security risk levels.
These findings are essential for accurately assessing risks and reporting them to stakeholders. Additionally, IAST’s results, combined with SAST and DAST, help prioritize vulnerabilities for efficient remediation.
Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
Secure applications from critical open-source vulnerabilities using software composition analysis. HCL AppScan SCA integrates seamlessly with HCL AppScan SAST to automatically test proprietary code and third-party component vulnerabilities.
Container Scanning Capability
It is an essential aspect of cloud application security, focused on identifying vulnerabilities within container images. It automates analyzing container contents, including dependencies, libraries, and system tools, to detect known vulnerabilities.
HCL AppScan on Cloud includes container scanning capabilities as part of its broader security testing suite. By utilizing Docker CLI tools, users can quickly initiate scans and compare container contents against an up-to-date vulnerabilities database in third-party and open-source applications, ensuring comprehensive protection.
Growth of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
The pandemic accelerated the need for rapid technology adoption, with many organizations shifting to remote work. Instead of securing data only at their central data centers, organizations now need to provide secure access closer to where employees are working.
The Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) framework addresses this need by delivering cloud-based security, allowing users and devices to securely access applications and data from any location.
Unlike traditional VPN gateways, which can be harder to scale, SASE offers an easier, more flexible solution, making it ideal for businesses managing a remote workforce.
Automation and Customization
Automation and customization in cloud application security testing allow organizations to secure their applications and address vulnerabilities more effectively.
Customizable automated tools can be tailored to specific needs, such as incorporating manual penetration test results into automated testing rules.
By automating security testing, organizations can tackle cyber threats, accelerate development cycles, ensure regulatory compliance, and optimize resources.
HCL AppScan on Cloud provides a comprehensive set of APIs and an open-source automation framework, enabling users to customize integrations to meet specific needs.
In addition to built-in integrations with leading tools, HCL AppScan Gateway can be combined with APIs and frameworks to fit seamlessly into existing processes while offloading application scanning to the cloud.
Incorporating Security in DevOps
As DevOps becomes more automated, organizations increasingly adopt DevSecOps by integrating security controls into continuous integration. The growing demand for new applications has created a “pace gap,” where apps are developed faster than security measures can be fully implemented.
To address this, organizations are automating security within the production cycle, reducing risks and inefficiencies before comprehensive security measures are in place.
DevSecOps plays a vital role in this transformation by automating cybersecurity and managing the Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) toolchain throughout the app lifecycle.
Optimizing Cloud Security with GenAI
GenAI is transforming application security testing by analyzing large datasets to identify patterns and anomalies, effectively reducing false positives and helping security experts focus on critical code issues.
Its capabilities extend to continuous threat detection and response, monitoring systems for suspicious activity while learning from past incidents to enhance detection accuracy.
Additionally, GenAI automates audits to ensure compliance with regulatory standards, significantly minimizing the risk of non-compliance and associated penalties. This highlights GenAI’s role in improving application security in cloud environments.
Value Propositions of HCL AppScan on Cloud
As a comprehensive application security software, HCL AppScan on Cloud protects the organization’s business and data. It identifies security vulnerabilities across web, mobile, and open-source applications using SAST, DAST, IAST, and SCA technologies.
While it includes features that contribute to cloud security, such as container scanning, its primary value lies in covering the full spectrum of application security needs, both in cloud-native and non-cloud environments.
Key benefits include:
- Comprehensive solution for all application security needs
- Broader support for language coverage with BYOL (bring your own language) framework
- Consolidated and correlated insights from multiple testing technologies
- Enhanced scan accuracy powered by machine learning
- Seamless integration with leading IDEs, CI/CD environments, and source code management (SCM) tools
- Complete control over open-source vulnerabilities
- Regular updates based on the latest security research, trends, and threat models.
- Real-time updates to detect zero-day vulnerabilities instantly
Conclusion
The future of application security will witness advances in trends focused on boosting digital fortifications and enhancing app security. AI-powered threat detection, zero-trust platforms and other automated security measures offer immense potential for mitigating rising threats.
As application security becomes increasingly complex, HCL AppScan on Cloud’s comprehensive security testing suite—including DAST, SAST, IAST and SCA—enables organizations to tackle application and cloud related security challenges effectively.
Embracing these cloud security trends is crucial for businesses to secure valuable data from cyber attacks across both cloud and on-premise environments. To keep pace with the ever-changing security landscape,
HCL AppScan provides cutting-edge solutions to protect your application environment. Explore how you can strengthen your application security with an application security free trial!
