Securing your application effectively boils down to understanding its architecture. When you have a grasp of how it functions, you can detect when something is amiss. Creating a visual board of your app shows you everything you need to know at a glance.
Application mapping simplifies the technical details of an active system by visualizing its operations in pictures. But how exactly can you use it to secure your devices?
What Is Application Mapping?
To get the most out of your software, you need to prioritize its security. This entails implementing defenses to secure your data and other items from unauthorized access. Your security is most effective when it’s thorough, capturing all aspects of your system.
Creating a visual diagram of your application that highlights the various components and their relationships gives you complete visibility to identify vulnerabilities—this process is called application mapping. When you implement it effectively, it enhances your security in numerous ways.
1. Prioritize Sensitive Data
All your application’s components must be in good condition for it to function properly. A defect in one area has a ripple effect across the entire system and exposes your data.
All data, including your personally identifiable information (PII) and other confidential details, is essential. But when you measure values, some carry more weight than others.
A visual representation of your application shows you your most critical data and resources. You get a sense of their security by evaluating the strength of the surrounding defenses. If you feel they aren’t secure enough, you can beef up their security with more layers.
2. Identify Dependencies
Your application may have various tools to perform different functions, but they are either directly or indirectly connected to achieve a common goal. Some devices directly depend on each other to function; for instance, a reporting system may rely on a database to collect and analyze its data. A defect in the latter automatically affects the reporting system.
Visually capturing the various components in your device enables you to understand how they connect. If there’s a breach in component A, you know better not to trust the results of the components that depend on it directly.
It’s best to reduce dependencies to the bare minimum with a security-by-design approach in the development stage. This is to ensure that a single threat on one component doesn’t affect the others, especially when you don’t discover it on time.
3. Test Application Components
Your application may have either residual or inherent threats that expose it to danger. These vulnerabilities worsen as they linger, causing more damage. One way to resolve them is to conduct testing.
Visualizing the areas of your app brings hidden vulnerabilities to the fore and enables you to streamline your testing procedures. Since you can’t test all the components at once, you need to arrange and prioritize your most critical assets. If you are quick with your testing, you can fix security loopholes before criminals identify and leverage them to their advantage.
4. Implement Better Access Control
Giving everyone a free pass to your device is a recipe for disaster. You need to control what each user can access and the extent of their access by establishing access controls.
Access control thrives on the zero-trust security model. Don’t trust any traffic to your system. Vet all traffic regardless of its source. Application mapping helps you understand the degree of access you grant to users. If you allow users to access your application based on their roles, you may not fully understand the extent of their access privilege without a visual representation.
Again, components of your system have dependencies. You may grant a user access to a non-critical area, not knowing that that area connects to a critical one. But when you map it out, you see the full picture. This will prevent you from making such a huge mistake that could jeopardize your application.
5. Develop an Effective Incident Response
An incident response plan is only effective when it addresses the issue squarely. If you experienced a data breach, you must understand the details of the breach before reacting. What specific data did the attacker tamper with, and how did they execute it?
Since application mapping visually captures how the various tools in your system connect, you know the specific areas through which data flows. With this information, you can highlight the dynamics of an attack and the best ways to mitigate it with an incident response plan.
6. Adopt Threat Modeling
All apps are susceptible to threats, so the earlier you discover and resolve them, the better as they pose higher risks in their later stages. Application mapping helps you understand the cybersecurity risk appetite of your system, highlighting your most vulnerable data and components. There’s also the knowledge of how threats circulate across your system.
Having a grasp of the risks at hand enables you to adopt a custom threat modeling system that addresses your unique security needs. You get a chance to identify and eradicate problems before they escalate.
7. Perform Maintenance
Effective maintenance stems from seeing what needs fixing and doing so immediately, lest they get worse. Some components of your systems may be faulty and you wouldn’t be aware of them if you didn’t have adequate visibility. Visually capturing the entire architecture of your application enables you to spot areas in need of urgent attention. This will ensure that it always performs optimally.
8. Update Your Map
An application map is a visual representation of your app. It must reflect your system’s structures at all times. Any discrepancies impede the accuracy of your interpretations or efforts. Applications evolve, some more often than others. You must update your map to align with the changes or developments.
An update could create new dependencies. If you don’t update your map to be in sync with it, you won’t be aware of these dependencies. This gives rise to compatibility issues as both tools will have different structures. You won’t be able to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities in your device because your map doesn’t reflect them.
Leverage Application Mapping for Proactive Security
The tiny details of your application can be a lot to grasp in words. You can capture so much with visuals without getting overwhelmed. Application mapping shows you the role each component of your device plays and how their actions affect the entire system. With this knowledge, you can build a proactive cybersecurity strategy that addresses threats and vulnerabilities beforehand.