18/10/2016 04:48 AST
F5 Networks on Tuesday urged Saudi businesses to put application security at the heart of plans to support the Kingdom’s tech-driven and transformative 2030 Vision.
The global application security specialist highlighted the pitfalls and opportunities for business-leaders as it revealed findings from its first Annual State of Application Security report, which was conducted in partnership with the Ponemon Institute.
“The proliferation of cutting-edge technology in Saudi Arabia is increasingly important as the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision is delivered. This is a genuinely transformative plan and applications will function as its central nervous system, empowering both individuals and business to prosper through new levels of flexibility and innovation,” said Mamduh Allam, Saudi Arabia General Manager, F5 Networks.
“However, the accountability for the security of applications appears to be in a state of flux, and IT departments still face significant barriers to ensure the integrity of these apps and the data they contain.”
Fifty percent of businesses run between 500 and 2,500 active applications, according to F5’s Application Security in the Changing Risk Landscape report.12% use more than 2,500.
Despite a third of all applications deemed critical to day-to-day activity, only 35% claimed to have the resources to detect vulnerabilities and as few as 30% said they had the technology to remediate the issues. A full 88% were concerned about new and emerging cyber-security threats weakening the future state of application security.
Worryingly, 43% also claimed to have no confidence that they knew all the applications in their organization (23% were “somewhat confident”).
Allam explained that one of the biggest challenges business face is a seachange in IT responsibility, particularly as applications become more central to delivering vital services, adaptive to mobile workforces and harnessing the Internet of Things.
F5’s survey found that 56% of respondents believe accountability for application security is shifting from IT to the end user or application owner. Whereas 21% respondents claimed the CIO or CTO is accountable, another 20% said nobody one had full ownership.
“We are finding that businesses are still coming to terms with the onslaught of new technologies, such as the Internet of Things infiltrating all aspects of our professional and personal lives. As a result, IT departments are often unprepared and under-resourced to implement sufficient defense strategies,” said Allam.
“Poor visibility on the application layer, application migration to the cloud, the proliferation of mobile devices and the lack of preparation of the development teams are among the main pitfalls faced by Saudi businesses today.”
In the past year, the most common security incidents due to insecure applications were SQL injections (29%), DDoS (25%) and Web fraud (21%). Fifty percent of respondents reported that applications are attacked more frequently than the network layer, with 58% claiming these types of attack are more severe.
63% of respondents said application layer attacks are harder to detect than at the network layer and 67% indicated they were more difficult to contain. The majority of respondents (57%) noted that a lack of visibility in the application layer is an impediment to achieving a robust security posture. In part, this can be attributed to the fact that network security is better funded than application security. F5’s report discovered that 18% of the IT security budget is dedicated to application security, whereas more than double that amount (an average of 39%) is allocated to network security.
Other significant barriers are created by migration to the cloud (47%), lack of skilled or expert personnel (45%) and the proliferation of mobile devices (43% respondents).
Indeed, the growth in mobile and
Saudi Gazette
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