A recent study of more than 150 organizations conducted by Aberdeen Group⁽¹⁾ found that the average total cost to remediate a single application security incident is approximately $300,000. As security incidents can happen at any point in the application life cycle, modernization initiatives can prove especially costly if they are not proactively secured from development to operations.

“Application security” is an often used term when, during the software development cycle, the software or application goes through a series of “penetration tests” designed to seek out vulnerabilities that could be exploited in the field. It is important to understand that flaws, bugs, holes, vulnerabilities, or whatever you call them, are often detected after the launch of software. This costs companies big bugs when a security incident arises.

While both developers and criminals have many of the same tools, the bad guys seem to have an edge and are often able exploit those flaws before developers can find and fix them.

HP today announced the first application security analysis solution that discovers the root cause of software vulnerabilities by observing attacks in real time.

HP Fortify Real-Time Hybrid Analysis, used in concert with the new HP Fortify 360 v3.0 and HP Application Security Center 9.0, helps organizations proactively reduce business risk and protect against malicious software attacks.

Enterprises using the new HP offerings can deliver the application security intelligence required to effectively manage risk across the life cycle. By taking a pragmatic approach that secures applications from development to operations, organizations can develop a scalable, repeatable and cost-effective security assurance program to further reduce risk.

“The traditional approach of single-point security solutions helps secure parts of a business, but limits enterprises from making informed decisions,” said Joseph Feiman, vice president and fellow, Gartner. “To make optimal security and risk management decisions, enterprises must move from technological security silos to enterprise security intelligence. This can be achieved through the interaction of different technologies as well as contextual analyses of integrated security and business information.”

Based on advanced application security technologies, the new solutions help clients:

—  Immediately respond to business threats: With new technology that correlates code-level analysis, HP Fortify Real-Time Hybrid Analysis allows organizations to observe security attacks as they happen to identify the point of vulnerability in code;

—  Manage enterprise risk from applications: Proactively protect against threat risks and address compliance requirements through HP Fortify 360 Server, which detects security vulnerabilities across architectural layers and prioritizes remediation;

—  Accelerate innovation with the latest technologies: Through expanded automation and web services testing capabilities, HP WebInspect 9.0 and HP Assessment Management Platform 9.0 increase security testing coverage of complex Web 2.0 applications;

—  Enhance productivity through greater collaboration: With new features that centralize vulnerability and remediation issues, HP WebInspect 9.0 reduces the time to recreate and fix security defects, allowing developers, quality assurance and security teams to cover more applications with fewer resources; and

—  Protect the integrity of the enterprise: Providing new programming language support and integrations with HP WebInspect, HP Fortify On Demand tests the security of all applications quickly, accurately and affordably.

“Applications bring new enterprise opportunities, but the threat landscape is constantly evolving,” said John M. Jack, vice president, HP Fortify business unit, Software, HP. “With new advanced real-time security technologies, HP is delivering the application security intelligence needed to drive innovation while lowering the enterprise risk associated with it.”

These new security solutions are key elements of the HP Security Intelligence and Risk Management Framework, which helps businesses and governments in pursuit of an Instant-On Enterprise. In a world of continuous connectivity, the Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to securely serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.

The new HP Fortify releases, part of HP Hybrid Delivery, are offered through multiple delivery models, including on-premise, on-demand software-as-a-service and managed services.

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert. See him discussing identity theft on YouTube.