The organization in today's world operates on an intricately meshed fabric of software, while conversely, that interdependence invites the hacker through more doors. A vulnerability within any component of this inner dependency chain could become an open door to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information, interruption of critical business processes, or even the demise of an entire corporation.

This would require adequate security measures associated with it. Automation could help identify and resolve any such potentially associated vulnerability issues right at the beginning stage of the development life cycle itself. Integrate a codeless test automation in your development process, and it can enable an organization to pinpoint and solve security flaws well in advance, thereby securing the interconnected systems.

Targets that might exist inside your applications

The attack surface indicates the total area of an organization's systems, applications, and networks that malicious actors could potentially exploit. It includes the different entry points, vulnerabilities, and weaknesses that an attacker may leverage to get unauthorized access, compromise data, or disrupt operations.

These entry points can be through Internet-facing services, remote access points, user devices, physical security measures, and even human interactions. More attack surface means greater risk due to the increased opportunity of finding vulnerabilities that an attacker can leverage.

Cross-application processes can greatly extend an organization's attack surface by creating complex interdependencies between various systems. When they talk to each other, applications share data, resources, and privileges.

The reality of possible Cyberattacks

Untested cross-application processes introduce significant security risks. Data breaches in a single application can cascade, exposing sensitive information across interconnected systems. Attackers might exploit vulnerabilities in one application to access and manipulate data in others, potentially exfiltrating critical financial, customer, or intellectual property.

Attacks on integration points besides disrupting key business processes will further create a chain reaction of failures between systems that are connected. In fact, vulnerabilities in one application may grant an attacker unauthorized access to other connected systems, allowing lateral movement across the network with privilege escalation.

Beyond these direct threats, untested cross-application processes can lead to data integrity issues. Inconsistent data transfer and transformation between applications can result in corrupted data, inaccuracies, and inconsistencies.

How to proactively secure cross-application processes

One of the most important roles of automated codeless testing in securing cross-application processes is the possibility of finding vulnerabilities at the earliest stage possible. These tests can find weaknesses either at low, component-level scale-unit tests or at higher, integrated levels where various applications interact. Codeless testing tools make this process so much easier with drag-and-drop-type interfaces that enable both developers and security professionals alike to build and execute security tests with minimal if any, coding. This speeds up the process and opens its availability to people of a wide range of technical backgrounds.

This means that early detection via automated testing reduces remediation costs. It allows an organization to learn about security issues earlier in the development lifecycle and prevents most security bugs from becoming serious and costly issues.

Automation enables continuous security testing, improving the overall security posture of cross-application processes with continuous monitoring and feedback. The organization can therefore take proactive steps to prevent new threats from arising and thus comply with all security-related regulations and standards.

Besides the increase in security, automated testing tends to hold great efficiency and cost-effective benefits. In such tests, repetitive tasks are performed that free the organization's precious time and resources for more strategic security initiatives. It reduces time and cost compared to manual testing and then leads to faster time-to-market for new applications, generally improving productivity.

Conclusion

Cross-application processes have to be secure in today's connected world. That means a much larger attack surface area because of interdependencies, and this requires pre-emptions of potential vulnerability points an organization should take to strengthen its security posture significantly.

Security testing through automation, using codeless tools, enables development teams to identify and reduce risks further down the development lifecycle. This reduces remediation costs while generally improving the efficiency of security operations. Such an approach will surely reinforce defenses against active cyber threats and enable business continuity, sensitive data protection, and full compliance with industry regulations.