Whether you’re writing code for a local business’s website or programming world-wide web-based application, putting your code on the internet opens your work to vulnerabilities that could affect you and your client. 

According to OSWAP’s Top 10 – 2017 Report:

“Insecure software is undermining our financial, healthcare, defense, energy, and other critical infrastructure. As our software becomes increasingly complex, and connected, the difficulty of achieving application security increases exponentially. The rapid pace of modern software development processes makes the most common risks essential to discover and resolve quickly and accurately. We can no longer afford to tolerate relatively simple security problems like those presented in this OWASP Top 10.”¹

“New vulnerabilities and techniques for exploiting software are being deployed continuously,” Mike, the software director for Davin said in a discussion about Vulnerability Scanner Software.  “Using scanning software keeps you on the leading edge.”

“To stay up to-to-date, you could read, subscribe to newsletters, research, etc. But partnering with a Vulnerability Scanning Company not only helps you to keep up with threats, it teaches proper coding methods while identifying code that needs to be fixed.”

When looking at Vulnerability Software, there are two major types of scanning: Static Testing and Dynamic Testing.

Static Testing scans your entire source code offline to identify vulnerabilities.

“The most significant benefit of using code scanning to identify potential vulnerabilities is to increase our knowledge and to develop robust coding standards,” Mike explained.  “The product provides suggestions and resources for efficient remediation.”

Dynamic Testing scans your websites and web-based apps for vulnerabilities.

“Dynamic testing identifies potential issues with the product and with the environment that the product is hosted in.  Dynamic testing provides a ‘real-world’ review using the published vulnerabilities and the tools that a hacker would use.”

Dissecting your code and testing for flaws will illuminate what you do well and what you need to strengthen.  Using an outside partner to aid in the testing can provide that crucial second set of eyes.

“Whitehat Security,” Mike said when asked what Vulnerability Scanning Software Davin partners with.  “Their product scans the languages that we use and it reports fewer false positives than other products that we have used.”

If you want to stay on top of cybersecurity and make sure you write the safest code possible, partnering with a Vulnerability Scanning Company can bring you to the next level.  There are a plethora of options that can meet your needs and budget.

References

1.OWASP. (2017). OWASP Top 10 - 2017[A report created by OWASP of the Top 10 Security Risks]. Retrieved from: https://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/OWASP_Top_Ten_2017/