Cybersecurity threats continue to rise and privileged accounts serve as the gateway to severe breaches. In fact, the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report shows that 14% of breaches begin with attackers exploiting vulnerabilities as an initial access step. Just imagine what if you have a solution where you can:
- Take the entire control of application access to protect sensitive data.
- Block unauthorized software in real-time before it compromises your network.
- Reduce insider risks while ensuring compliance with industry regulations.
That is where application control steps in. It helps protect your applications from misuse by preventing unauthorized actions and strictly managing each user's access.
Whether you are new to handling software security or looking to refine your strategy, this guide helps you learn everything about application control. Let’s check out what it is, why it is important, how it works, and the challenges.
Application control is a cybersecurity practice that allows businesses to regulate and manage the execution of software applications within the IT environment. It also focuses on monitoring, managing, and securing software access to prevent unauthorized use and ensure compliance with security policies.
At its core, application control helps businesses manage privileged accounts. Accounts like admin accounts, root access, and service accounts are targeted by attackers looking to exploit vulnerabilities. Such accounts have elevated permission which makes them a critical factor for security measures to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches.
Solutions like Securden complement this approach by providing advanced tools to secure and simplify the management of privileged accounts. This unified privileged access management solution assists businesses by implementing granular control and streamlining application oversight. With the right application control measures in place, you can:
- Blocks unauthorized applications from running on your network.
- Implements security policies across your systems to minimize risk exposure.
- Monitors and logs application activity for suspicious behavior.
In short, application control is a reliable approach to protect your business's software security and maintain a strong defense against cyber threats.
Secure Your Applications with Application Control Solutions
Prevent unauthorized access and protect your business with Securden's advanced application control solutions tailored to your needs.
Application control uses diverse techniques to manage software access and usage. Each of the techniques ensures that only authorized applications operate on your systems while reducing security risks. Here are some of the techniques used in application control.
1. Input Controls
Protect your system from invalid information by integrating strict entry controls that need data to adhere to a defined format or get necessary authorization.
Example: An eCommerce website that requires customers to input a valid email format like "example@domain.com" to complete the registration process.
2. Processing Controls
Verify that incoming data is processed correctly by implementing validity checks to ensure data integrity and prevent errors.
Example: A healthcare management system cross-checks patient IDs and insurance numbers to ensure records match before processing medical claims.
3. Output Controls
Secure data during transmission by ensuring it reaches the correct user and confirming that all the necessary checks are completed.
Example: A company’s payroll system encrypts employee salary details before sending them via email to ensure that only authorized recipients can read the data.
4. Access Controls
Define actions that users perform in the application using methods like multi-factor authentication to verify identity.
Example: A financial institution using multi-factor authentication (MFA) for customers to access online banking, requiring both a password and a one-time code sent via SMS.
5. Integrity Controls
Guarantee data accuracy and completeness by validating input formats and checking for missing or inconsistent information.
Example: A data entry system flagging an incomplete address field (such as missing a postal code) when entering customer information, prompting the user to fill in the missing data.
6. Application Whitelisting and Blacklisting
Manage application execution by allowing only approved software to operate (whitelisting) or blocking known threats (blacklisting).
Example: A company network only allows whitelisted applications like Slack and Microsoft Teams, while blocking blacklisted apps like Tor and any unauthorized file-sharing tools.
7. Auditing and Monitoring
Perform regular audits and constant monitoring to detect weaknesses in application control and address new threats.
Example: A cloud service provider running automated tools to monitor log files for unusual login attempts or access to critical databases.
Each of the techniques that you have gone through provides a layer of security that helps businesses prevent malware and minimize insider threats as well. Let’s help you understand the entire process of how this works.
Here is the entire process of how application control works and how it ensures the secure management of software execution.
Step 1. Create Application Whitelists and Blacklists
First, define which applications are allowed (Whitelisting) and which ones are restricted (Blacklisting). This helps you define clear access rules to ensure that only reliable software is operated, while malicious applications are blocked.
- Whitelisting: Only authorized applications are allowed to run by ensuring that only reliable software is permitted access to your systems.
- Blacklisting: Uses blacklists to block particular applications that have been flagged as harmful or outdated.
Carrying out such an approach helps your business prevent unauthorized access and reduces the chances of malware infections.
Step 2. Define and Enforce Policies
Once the boundaries are set, security policies are built to dictate how applications need to be used in your systems. Such policies assist in eliminating unpermitted actions and maintain control over who accesses the software. What needs to be taken care of? Here are the points to be considered.
- Define clear rules that specify how the application needs to be installed, executed, and updated.
- Integrate automatic enforcement to ensure that these policies are applied constantly without any manual oversight.
Having clear policies makes it easy to align application behavior with security best practices. These policies reduce risks and protect sensitive data from unauthorized entry or breaches.
Step 3. Monitor and Log Application Activity
Monitoring applications in real-time is important as it helps you to track behavior and identify anomalies. You can spot unusual actions and eliminate breaches by logging all application activity. You need to log every interaction whether it's software installation or executions to maintain visibility.
Also, using pattern recognition to spot threats before escalation can help. Regular monitoring ensures you remain aware of all the activity performed in the application. This approach minimizes vulnerabilities and protects your system from attacks.
Step 4. Verify and Block Applications in Real-Time
Verification is the key to confirming that applications align with the security standards before they are executed. Real-time scanning examines applications for security flaws which prevents vulnerabilities from getting into the system. Carry out dynamic scanning where it automatically scans applications at the point of execution to identify security risks.
You need to make sure to block any application that fails the security test immediately. Real-time verification helps minimize the malware slipping through your defenses that protect your systems from attacks.
Step 5. Update and Adapt Policies Regularly
Security policies need to be updated periodically to get rid of any kind of threats. Adapting your application control as new vulnerabilities and attacks emerge ensures continued protection. Check out the following pointers during this last step.
- Policy Audits: Perform regular reviews of the application control policies to ensure alignment with the current security landscape.
- Threat Adaptation: Consistently review and modify the policies to confirm they are aligned with new security standards and counteract emerging threats.
Regular updates ensure your security controls remain effective, keeping your applications protected from evolving risks. With such a detailed understanding of the process, let’s discuss how application control benefits your businesses.
Simplify Application Control and Boost Security with Securden
Securden’s application control system allows you to define, monitor, and manage application access to reduce vulnerabilities and prevent malicious threats.
Here are the benefits associated with application control.
1. Prevents Malware and Unauthorized Software
Businesses protect their network from cyberattacks by restricting untrusted or unapproved software execution. Application control offers real-time verification to allow only reliable applications to operate. Such a proactive defense blocks harmful programs before infiltration occurs. It ensures the protection of critical business assets and also takes care of data security.
2. Ensures Compliance with Security Standards
Application control is effective for businesses that operate in regulated industries. It ensures compliance with several security standards like HIPAA, GDPR, or PCI DSS. Application control implements policies at the application level that restrict access to only approved and secured software. The real-time monitoring and logging allow businesses to track application use and document their adherence to security regulations.
3. Minimizes Insider Threats
It helps reduce the risks by limiting application access to only approved or authorized users. Employees are prevented from accidentally or intentionally installing or executing unpermitted software that exposes data or interrupts business operations. Also, monitoring and logging application activity give visibility into employee behavior as well which helps businesses to detect suspicious activity.
4. Enhances System Performance
At times, system performance is compromised by unnecessary software running in the background. Application control improves system performance by blocking unwanted applications that consume valuable resources. This approach ensures optimal resource allocation and maintains the entire system's stability. Businesses prevent resource congestion and avoid unwanted performance bottlenecks by whitelisting only reliable applications.
5. Supports Proactive Threat Management
Businesses quickly detect unusual or suspicious behavior that indicates malware infiltration or unpermitted access. Here, real-time verification helps businesses block attacks before damage is caused. Also, application policies can be regularly updated to stay prepared for emerging threats.
While this approach offers several benefits, it's important to recognize that it also comes with challenges. Let’s discuss each challenge in detail.
Here are the challenges associated with the implementation of the application control.
1. Maintain Accurate and Dynamic Policy Updates
Businesses find it difficult to keep application control policies accurate and up to date in environments where applications evolve frequently. A single oversight leads you to vulnerabilities or operational disruptions.
Solution:
To overcome this, businesses adopt automated policy management tools. Such tools track application changes and help IT teams maintain a responsive approach to policy updates. Businesses ensure to remain aligned with operational needs and security standards by integrating policy updates into routine audits.
Pro Tip: Use tools that provide real-time notifications for policy deviations.
2. Balance Strict Control Without Disrupting Workflow
For businesses, strict application control policies are important to ensure tight security. However, these policies unintentionally lead to disruptions in workflows. When access to applications is controlled tightly, then it causes frustration among employees by preventing legitimate processes or applications.
Solution:
To strike the right balance, a risk-based approach helps identify and prioritize critical applications and defines separate policies for diverse user groups based on their roles. Getting a solution like Securden helps you personalize these controls by adjusting access permissions based on user behaviors, roles, and risk levels. Also, a regular feedback session with employees assists in refining these controls for effective workflow.
3. False Positives and Negatives Leading to User Frustration
There are cases where application control systems misidentify reliable applications as threats (false positives) or fail to recognize malicious applications (false negatives). This loses user trust and compromises security.
Solution:
Investing in AI-driven application control solutions reduces the chances of false positives and negatives. These solutions analyze patterns, grab information from past behavior, and improve precision over time. Also, offering a fast-track review mechanism for flagged applications allows IT teams to address errors quickly.
4. Integration Challenges with Legacy Systems
Having legacy systems makes integration difficult due to lacking compatibility with advanced application control solutions. This leads to gaps in security coverage and impacts the implementation of new controls.
Solution:
A phased implementation plan is key. You can begin performing audits of existing systems to identify compatibility gaps. Use middleware or APIs to bridge this gap. For systems that cannot be updated, you can consider integrating additional compensating controls like network segmentation or sandboxing.
Getting the right approach to application control is important when it comes to securing your business applications. Having a reliable solution that personalizes access control is necessary to ensure that security measures are customized to diverse factors like user roles and risk levels.
Securden bridges the gap between advanced security and practical implementation by offering an endpoint privilege manager to protect privileged accounts. Here is how Securden can help you:
- Create customized application whitelists to control software access.
- Define and enforce strict policies that prevent unauthorized activity without disrupting workflows.
- Monitor and log application usage continuously, giving you full visibility into application behavior.
- Granularly control application usage across Windows, Mac, and Linux endpoints.
- Grant temporary administrator access with fully controlled and auditable processes.
Secure your applications today with Securden. Book a free demo today and protect your business and ensure long-term success.
