The Role of Automation in Application Security Posture Management

Software supply chain attacks are a rapidly growing trend getting serious attention from cybersecurity experts. These attacks aim to infiltrate and disrupt systems through vulnerable points in the supply chain, leading to data theft, malware planting, and system takeover. Recent attacks such as the MoveIt vulnerability of 2023 or the Log4j vulnerability put organizations around the globe at risk. Analyst firm Gartner¹ predicts that supply chain attacks will affect 45% of international firms by 2025 ijn some fashion. An effective Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) solution can help mitigate these risks by providing comprehensive visibility across the software development lifecycle (SDLC).

Securing the software supply chain presents several challenges. Using a variety of third-party libraries, frameworks and tools can make it tough for an organization to ensure that all components are secure. In addition, the interdependencies between different components can create a cascade effect in which a vulnerability in one element disrupts the entire system. Modern supply chains often rely heavily on open-source components and outsourced code development, which expands the attack surface and introduces additional risks. By selecting an effective ASPM solution in response to these challenges, organizations can empower themselves with capabilities like centralized policy enforcement and prioritization of security issues, enabling them to automate tasks and strengthen their security posture.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how ASPM has emerged to address the evolving complexities of modern application development. ASPM helps to elevate security posture with the use of centralized platforms and best-in-class application security testing. ASPM tools assist in managing and enhancing application security by collating risks from various sources and integrating them into a comprehensive framework for risk assessment.

ASPM addresses a variety of challenges

Securing the software supply chain is a multifaceted challenge that requires proactive measures to implement a robust protection system. It should implement application security posture, ensure resilience against evolving cyberattacks, address emerging regulatory demands and remove silos between disparate testing and development tools that create friction and risk. Traditional security tools often lack the necessary visibility and adaptability to manage the expanding attack surface created by cloud-native architectures and microservices, leading to critical vulnerabilities and blind spots in security coverage.

ASPM integrates results from various sources to provide a unified view of security findings, enabling organizations to effectively manage and mitigate vulnerabilities in real time. An application security posture management system achieves optimal software supply chain security and risk management by providing these features:

Visibility and transparency

ASPM extends visibility into software supply chains, promoting transparency with respect to the software components used. By maintaining an accurate inventory of software components, organizations can effectively track changes, quickly identify vulnerabilities and ensure that detailed component information is readily available. ASPM tools can also maximize return on existing security investments by integrating seamlessly with current security measures and improving security efficacy.

Risk prioritization

An ASPM system prioritizes risk assessments of software components based on active context, including exploitability, reachability and business criticality. This helps organizations understand potential security vulnerabilities and prioritize mitigation efforts based on real-world impact.

Continuous monitoring

ASPM seamlessly enables continuous monitoring of software supply chains to detect and respond to organizational security threats in real time. This minimizes the impact of potential breaches and ensures ongoing protection. Continuous scanning improves workflows, reduces tool dependency and provides actionable insights into vulnerabilities and their remediation.

Benefits of automation in ASPM

Organizations must employ automation in many testing methodologies as applications expand to encompass open-source dependencies, APIs, microservices, containers, infrastructure as code and more. Automation provides:

1.Automated supply chain security and response

Automatically scanning and monitoring different aspects of the application and infrastructure for vulnerabilities using ASPM enables you to mobilize security teams quickly and respond appropriately in the event of threats. Businesses can improve accuracy and enhance the efficiency of organizational workflows with 24/7 automatic visibility into the security state of applications and infrastructure.

2.No-code workflow automation

No-code workflow automation with container coverage enables DevOps and DevSecOps teams to quickly create customizable response plans from an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. This simplifies the creation of secure workflows, automates ticketing and notifications, and enforces granular policies to prevent security issues from reaching production.

3.Remediation assistance

An ASPM system can automatically map results to frameworks such as the Open Software Supply Chain Attack Reference (OSC&R) framework to understand attack techniques and tactics. This reduces human error by identifying any vulnerabilities along the way.

4.Strengthened supply chain security

Seamless integration of the security management system with the SDLC and all critical components, including PBOM (Pipeline Bill of Materials) technology, means full discovery, visibility and traceability from code to cloud and from cloud to code.

5.Reduced human error

ASPM reduces friction between security teams and the SDLC team by giving developers the tools to fix vulnerabilities in the environments where they work every day. It promotes collaboration, provides seamless supply chain security, enables developer-friendly workflows and reduces human error.

Best practices for implementing ASPM automation

In today’s Digital+ economy, innovation and agility are keys to success in ensuring the security of the entire software supply chain. Making sure that each workflow runs optimally requires specialized tools and processes. Here’s how businesses can implement application security posture management platforms to align with these key principles.

• Businesses should keep ASPM governance separate from scanning. ASPM requires a clear distinction between the disparate tools used to detect vulnerabilities and the central platform to process those findings.
• The goal should be to unify the entire software security ecosystem. This is done in large part by integrating ASPM with existing security tools and workflows, as well as integrating security overall into the development pipeline, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflows, ticketing systems and runtime environments.
• Optimizing remediation efforts is important. Prioritize addressing high-risk true positives — vulnerabilities that pose a significant threat and have been verified as legitimate by the ASPM.
• Each organization has its own security risk culture, and should determine organizational maturity level by how efficiently it implements supply chain security controls, reporting and processes.
• Continuously monitor and improve automated processes to resolve issues early, reduce downtime and improve operational efficiency.
• A regular training period is needed to upskill teams in the effective use of computerized tools.

Conclusion

ASPM platforms like those offered by HCLSoftware are redefining application security, securing the modern software supply chain from vulnerabilities by providing an end-to-end security solution. ASPM unifies AppSec practices and ensures seamless visibility and traceability from code to cloud and from cloud to code. Leveraging a proprietary Pipeline Bill of Material (PBOM) technology and the OSC&R framework, ASPM delivers comprehensive security coverage with contextualized prioritization and automated response and remediation against cyberattacks throughout the SDLC.

By integrating ASPM into all application security processes, organizations can improve efficiency, reduce human error, and maintain a strong, resilient security posture in the face of growing supply chain threats.