How to Perform Website Security Scan?

Cybersecurity is indispensable for all kinds of organizations. Within cybersecurity, website security is considered most important owing to the fact that there is an increasing online presence of organizations along with several million clients/customers generating several quintillions of data every day. These data include personal and confidential information of clients and the organization, trade secrets, and so on. As technology continues to advance at a rampant pace, it is being increasingly leveraged by cyber-attackers to breach into websites, unearth latent vulnerabilities and gaps to exploit and accomplish their goals which could range from data theft, defacing websites, uploading malicious content or spam to making service unavailable for ransom, etc. From the major data breaches of the 21^st century, we have all learned that the cost of such breaches is humungous whether in terms of loss of customers, finances, goodwill and reputation, post-breach response expenses, or escalation costs.

Some facts and figures…

To get more perspective, here are some facts and figures. Research and data from across the globe suggest that in a matter of merely 5 years, over 9.5 billion records have been breached/ stolen/ lost/ compromised, out of which 2 billion were in 2017 itself. The US was the biggest victim of such data breaches and cyber-attacks in 2017 with over 80% of incidents taking place in the country. In the US, healthcare, government, financial, education, and retail sectors have been most targeted by cyber-criminals in 2017. And what is most appalling is that more than 50% of small businesses in the US have been victims of cyber-attacks in 2017.

Common mistakes in website security that could prove costly

The biggest mistake that organizations commit when it comes to website security is that they think their websites are somehow automatically secure and immune from attacks and that someone else is responsible for website security, not themselves. Most organizations do not even realize that there is malware on their website until something untoward happens.

The second mistake is that organizations make heavy investments in website security thinking more money means the highest levels of security, which may not be the case if there is no proactive mindset and effective strategies from their end. Another mistake organizations and especially their employees commit is that they think cybersecurity to be a one-time thing, but it is a continuous process considering how the nature and intensity of threats are diverse and the number of threats is ever-increasing. All this could prove very costly for organizations especially with the imminent risk of being a blacklisted website apart from the loss of data, assets, customers, investors, and finances.

What is the solution?

As the saying goes, “a stitch in time saves nine”, organizations must look at website security as a top priority irrespective of their scale, nature or industry of operation. A sound cybersecurity strategy that incorporates an end-to-end website security solution coupled with a proactive mindset of all stakeholders towards web security is crucial. One of the most important components of such a website security solution is web application scanning.

What is website security scanning and how to perform these?

Website security scanning helps organizations to prevent and mitigate attacks and hacking attempts. It helps identify vulnerabilities and gaps before others do, detect malware and bad traffic, and thereon, work towards fixing it. Like we discussed earlier, prevention is better than cure and website security scanning does just that.

The most important thing with website security scanning is that it has to be scheduled and performed on a daily basis as well as during custom requirements like when a change has been made to the website or to the business functions, etc. This will be crucial in identifying potential threats and vulnerabilities include business logic flaws.

While website security scanning can be done manually too, it is more efficient to have it automated with certified security experts managing the process. This way organizations can focus on their core functions and overall development. Automated website security scanning by AppTrana and Indusface’s WAS, for instance, is a complete scanning tool that is cloud-based. It is capable of detecting potential security threats and immediately blocking bad traffic and access requests looking to snoop around the website for vulnerabilities as well as detecting malware and website defacements effectively. This is possible because the Global Threat Intelligence platform is continuously updated with feeds from global threats and also consolidated with learnings from past attack history about vulnerabilities, cyber-attackers MO, and so on. The certified security experts conduct validated penetration testing with custom rules, provide proof of concept support, and assure zero false positives.

Use AppTrana, an automated, cloud-based, integrated, and intelligent website security scanning tool that will allow you to focus on your business while securing your websites on your behalf.