James Harvey, Executive CTO at AppDynamics discusses why technologists need to snap out of security limbo and take an integrated approach to application security.
Across all industries, application (opens in new tab) security (opens in new tab) has become an increasingly difficult and complex challenge. Rapid innovation over the last few years has led to a significant expansion in attack surfaces, particularly where organizations have shifted to modern application stacks, built on cloud (opens in new tab) native technologies. Increased deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) and connected devices and new hybrid working (opens in new tab) models have also extended attack surfaces.
At the same time, there has been a sharp increase in the volume and sophistication of cybercrime threats which are raising concerns within IT departments. In fact, in the latest research from Cisco AppDynamics, The shift to a security approach for the full application stack, 78% of technologists feel that their organization is vulnerable to a multi-staged cybersecurity (opens in new tab) attack that would affect the full application stack over the next 12 months. Of course, the potential consequences of such an attack could be disastrous for brands.
The issue for many IT teams is that they haven’t got the right level of visibility and insights to understand where new threats are coming from across a sprawling topology of applications. More than half of technologists report that they often end up operating in ‘security limbo’ because they don’t know what to focus on and prioritize.
An integrated approach to application security enables IT teams to secure the full stack of modern applications across the entire application lifecycle. It provides complete protection for applications, from development through to production, across code, containers (opens in new tab) and Kubernetes. Crucially, with combined application and security monitoring, technologists can see how vulnerabilities could impact the business and then prioritize their actions accordingly, rather than being stuck in limbo.
