Trustwave's Application Security Team Addressing National OWASP Conference
CHICAGO (October 21, 2009) - Application security experts from Trustwave, the leading provider of on-demand data security and payment card industry compliance management solutions to businesses and organizations throughout the world, will deliver briefings at AppSec 2009, the national OWASP conference in Washington, D.C., November 10-13, 2009. The presentations will be delivered by members of SpiderLabs, the advanced security team at Trustwave responsible for incident response, penetration testing and application security.
Charles Henderson and David Byrne will present Automated vs. Manual Security: You Can't Filter the Stupid, which will look at the deficiencies in only using automated tools to test application security.
Both Henderson and Byrne have spent many years looking at failures in application security that have led to compromises. Using the information from research and forensic investigations, they will provide real-world examples to illustrate the relative strengths and weaknesses of automated solutions and manual techniques.
Automated tools are capable of detecting simple vulnerabilities and performing highly repetitive tasks. However, there are entire classes of complicated vulnerabilities that are theoretically impossible for automated software to detect due to inherent authorization and logic flaws.
Logic flaws are errors in the intended way in which an application should behave. These flaws cannot be detected with automated tools because they don't understand human logic. A manual test conducted by a security expert is able to pick off unique errors, logic flaws and authorization flaws that automated tools have a difficult time finding. Without actual human testing of an application, attackers are able to evade the system and access information meant only for network administrators. Today, businesses have exhausted automated tools, leaving business logic flaws unaccounted for resulting in an open door for attackers to compromise major applications.
Jon Rose and Tom Leavey will present, Cloudy with a Chance of 0-day, which will provide a brief overview of cloud computing and discuss security risks of moving into the cloud.
Cloud computing architecture appeals to many IT managers as it reduces start-up costs, maintenance costs and overhead required to run systems. However, as with all new technology, there are inherent security risks. This talk will discuss risks related to cloud application code, architecture, runtime environment and development environment. It will also include demonstration applications to illustrate the security risks and remediation strategies.
"Our incident investigations have shown that application security cannot be done with just the push of a button," says Robert J. McCullen, chairman and CEO of Trustwave. "Manual testing helps uncover gaping holes in the application layer that need to be fixed before an attacker has the opportunity to exploit these issues and ruin brand reputation and customer trust."
"Attackers are well aware that critical data lies at the application layer," says Nicholas J. Percoco, senior vice president of SpiderLabs. "Securing an organization's future starts with proper security best practices, which should always include manual application testing to find vulnerabilities the same way the attackers find them - by studying the application logic to devise an exploit."
About Trustwave
Trustwave is a leading provider of on-demand and subscription-based information security and payment card industry compliance management solutions to businesses and government entities throughout the world. For organizations faced with today's challenging data security and compliance environment, Trustwave provides a unique approach with comprehensive solutions that include its flagship TrustKeeper® compliance management software and other proprietary security solutions including SIEM , WAF , EV SSL certificates and secure digital certificates . Trustwave has helped hundreds of thousands of organizations-ranging from Fortune 500 businesses and large financial institutions to small and medium-sized retailers-manage compliance and secure their network infrastructures, data communications and critical information assets. Trustwave is headquartered in Chicago with offices throughout North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. For more information, visit https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/.