Applications or App Protection

Technology plays a vital role in the way we live, work and play, and apps are central to this. Whether it’s checking our emails, setting up Zoom meetings, scheduling a workout, or chatting to our friends and colleagues- there’s an app for almost everything. However, with such reliance on apps, businesses and individuals are exposed to significantly increased security risks.

Apps accelerate innovation and business agility, but are inherently fragmented, presenting control and management challenges for IT teams.

As your value-add distribution and technology partner, Dicker Data works with leading vendors to provide best-in-class security solutions, ensuring your customers can continue to maximise the evolving digital era and app usage while protecting every aspect of application security. Our team of experts have a deep understanding of the ever-evolving threat landscape, ensuring our partners and end-users remain one-step-ahead on the cybersecurity front.

Although we have embraced the role of apps in digital transformation, there are a few important considerations when it comes to protecting apps and application programming interfaces, (APIs) from threats and vulnerabilities.

1. Stopping attacks in their tracks 

Prevention is better than cure and blocking cyberthreats before they infiltrate the network is key to robust protection. Microsoft’s Windows Defender App Control can proactively sanction apps, including apps unknown to your network, providing a digital signature of the entire operating system and blocking any deviations. In addition, Microsoft’s Defender for Cloud Apps can stop the uploading or downloading of data, sharing of information, and support business with implementing a zero-trust approach.

Controlling the apps that are permitted within an operating environment effectively allows the defence against cyberattacks that would otherwise exploit business networks and other user endpoints. However, strong security also enables businesses to encourage app-use on networks. By way of example, through its enhanced security platform, Forcepoint allows end-users to access their favourite apps without restriction across company networks, cloud environments, and BYODs, empowering employees and maximising efficiencies.

Amid growing complexity, apps and APIs are exposed to an unprecedented array of threats and vulnerabilities. Citrix Application Security solutions provides a holistic approach to managing and maintaining consistent security across multi-cloud and hybrid environments. It provides fully automated, layered protection that utilises AI and machine learning to identify and track threats, improving efficiency, accuracy, and protection.

2. Securing the Cloud

The cloud is our new data centre, the internet our new network, and SaaS the new application stack. While these solutions deliver the flexibility and agility modern enterprise craves, the resulting ecosystem of external dependencies and third-party services creates substantial operational blind spots for IT teams. The Cisco ThousandEyes Platform combines various active and passive monitoring techniques to provide deep insight into user experience across apps and services. It also enables digital experience monitoring that empowers management of cloud-based and internet-centric environments, which customers and employees depend on. In the new digital world, businesses need visibility that goes beyond narrowly focused network and application capabilities to deliver digital experiences.

Today, many web breaches are through unsecured apps. While serverless is the fastest growing cloud service model, many organisations have not, as yet adopted a security layer for this. Trend Micro's CloudOne addresses the cybersecurity concerns for these platforms. It protects organisations of all sizes from threats across the applications hosted in the cloud, building a comprehensive mesh of cybersecurity that works seamlessly together to protect the cloud web facing applications and development stage of these applications. This integration is a must in today’s dynamic, technology-driven environment.

A further challenge in cloud-based environments is shared resources where additional security must be deployed to ensure users only have view of data they are authorised to access. VMware’s security suite works together to develop, add on, and test security features within apps to prevent security vulnerabilities and threats. With VMware, organisations of all sizes can reduce risk, maintain compliance, and simplify security for cloud-based environments at scale.

3. Be security smart 

Securing private and sensitive data is vital to not only protecting business bottom lines, but also reputation, brand credibility, and trust. It pays to be security-smart. Dicker Data sets your customers up for success through comprehensive training and presales support, technical capabilities to support the entire security ecosystem, and robust, end-to-end security solution designs. Our vendor-partners are leveraging the latest in AI and machine-learning to predict threats and vulnerabilities and automate security responses. For example, Check Point’s CloudGuard AppSec is fully automated and leverages contextual AI analysis to provide precise threat prevention for modern web applications, lessening the need for ongoing administration and increasing application security at scale.

Visibility is a key component of iron-clad security. Nutanix Flow addresses many private cloud security challenges. Users can visualise and discover apps and network connectivity, segment apps and virtual networks, secure applications, prevent data loss, and support compliance goals. Part of this visibility challenge also includes knowing who, why, and where users are accessing corporate data. Multi-factor identification is central to this and SecurID and Netwitness protection enables this, providing a broad array of flexible authentication options for access to data and apps.

As we increasingly rely on apps to access business information, facilitate connectivity, and keep us on schedule, securing these access points from cybercriminals is becoming a top business priority. With Dicker Data, our partners access best-in-class vendors, cutting-edge solutions, and our team of experts who are at the forefront of emerging trends. Our knowledge and purpose-built solutions for application security are just one part of our end-to-end security offering.