What is an Application Security Tool? Top 5 App Security Tools 2024

Applications are becoming the gateway for attackers to gain unauthorized access and perform their malicious activities on end-user devices. And when such a thing happens, not only the user but also the software development firm suffers.

So, now it has become utterly important to ensure the app security with the best-in-class tools available. Here, we are going to discuss the top five app security tools that can help you strengthen application security while retaining performance, scalability, and stability.

An Insight Into Application Security and Associated Tools

Application security is an umbrella that covers every factor, mechanism, and tool to ensure that software is vulnerability-free, works efficiently, prevents cyber-attackers, and aligns with industry standards.

Further, the tools used to achieve the app security targets are considered app security tools. The primary aim of these tools is to help the developers and security experts discover loopholes, update the code, and guarantee that the app is following the protocols while fulfilling business requirements.

What To Look for In an App Security Tool

While selecting any app security tool, you should consider looking for the following features:

Functionality to automatically analyze code and find vulnerabilities.
Ability to support SAST, DAST, SCS, API, and container security.
Support to align the application with PCI, NIST, and similar standards.
Compatibility with Windows, macOS, Linux, and other operating systems.
Ability to integrate with CI/CD Pipeline and streamline DevOps-based development.
Security features for the Software Supply Chain.
Support from the publisher and frequent updates to use only the latest security algorithms.

Further, the list expands enormously. You should analyze your needs and the features of a tool to select the most appropriate one for your enterprise.

Top 5 App Security Tools To Consider in 2024

The following are the top five application security tools to consider for data integrity, availability, and confidentiality in today’s dynamic digital landscape.

#1: GitLab

GitLab is a new-age DevSecOps platform with integrated features to help you strengthen the application security. You can depend on GitLab for version control, to protect the software supply chain, and to automate the software delivery.

In addition, it’s best suited for applications developed following the DevOps methodology. You can directly integrate it within your CI/CD pipeline and leverage its SAST, DAST, container, dependency, and secret scanning features to discover vulnerabilities as you go.

Moreover, it offers the following features and functionalities:

It helps in the automation of the creation of SBOM (Software Bill of Materials).
It supports managing all vulnerabilities at a single interface. Also, built-in scanners thoroughly check the code before the final push to the repository.
You can use its compliance pipelines to ensure app alignment with regulatory, administrative, and industry standards.
It’s now powered by AI, meaning you will get complete guidance at every phase and sub-step of the software development lifecycle.
It helps to configure necessary security controls to prevent unauthorized access to the source code. Also, it tracks modifications, which you can analyze during troubleshooting and patching the vulnerabilities.
It can be used to automate application testing, find loopholes, and patch them before final release.

#2: Trend Micro Cloud App Security

Trend Micro is a reliable SaaS app security solution. You can use it to create an additional security layer to safeguard data from illegitimate actors. Primarily, it’s used for protecting enterprise-grade web-based apps, such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. It’s an all-rounder solution capable of preventing BEC (business email compromise) and malware attacks.

Additionally, you can utilize it for all significant use cases, such as for cloud-native apps, hybrid applications, borderless workforce, network blind spots, and more. It also offers some avant-garde built-in features, as listed below.

It offers real-time protection, which helps in blocking malicious activities.
It supports detecting malware and removing it from the system.
It can be used to detect threats and prepare data loss prevention mechanisms to fulfill data availability requirements.
Cyber-attacks in progress can also be detected and promptly stopped with the help of this solution.
You can integrate it with any of your cloud-based applications using its API.
By default, it uses 200+ compliance templates, supporting the maintenance of data confidentiality and integrity.
It can be used to protect cloud-based storage integrated with your applications, including Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft SharePoint, and OneDrive.
It helps in securing the remotely shared data by scanning it for malware and altering the user if something unexpected is detected.

#3: Qualys Platform

Qualys’ platform is an all-in-one security solution that provides reliable application security functionalities. It can be considered for discovering, managing, and remediating software vulnerabilities.

Furthermore, the TruRisk platform also empowers it, which provides you with a centralized interface to handle all tasks. Also, you get to use the Qualys WAF (Web Application Firewall), which supports blocking attacks and enforces SSL/TLS usage by all applications.

All the features of Qualys platform are unmatchable, but following the ones that you must know:

It offers high scalability, as you can add “n” number of applications under the WAF security.
The WAF reliably balances the network load and ensures to maintain and upscale the overall performance.
It helps to protect applications from XSS (Cross-Site Scripting), XXE, remote code execution, SQL injection, and all such similar attacks.
It allows the creation of custom access lists and rules to block unauthorized users over the enterprise network and application.
The platform supports detecting malware, and its dashboard will show all the details about it, like infected code block.
It can scan third-party APIs of all kinds, including the SOAP and REST APIs.
With the label functionality, you can efficiently test and mark the assets associated with your applications.

#4: Veracode

Veracode is a popular application security tool and the first choice of numerous developers and security professionals. Mainly, it’s used for detecting runtime vulnerabilities and patching them with appropriate mechanisms and updates. Also, it is recommended to secure custom and third-party APIs to retain data integrity.

This new-age app security solution solves top customer challenges, which include safeguarding the entire SDLC, building security competency, securing the software supply chain, minimizing attack surface, and protecting cloud development and deployment.

Furthermore, it provides an extensive range of features, benefits, and functionalities like the following:

It’s a single interface solution that provides you with every detail about the application’s security.
It provides you with PCI and OWASP 10 support to detect and patch all significant vulnerabilities.
Reports can be created using Veracode to analyze every factor from an administrative and development aspect thoroughly.
It can be used to define and compare benchmarks with other applications in the industry.
Policies can be created to stop unauthorized modifications and retain code integrity.
The solution can be integrated within your DevOps and DevSecOps methodology for better control and transparency.
It supports in other security tasks, such as risk management, governance, and compliance.

#5: Checkmarx

Checkmarx application security tool fulfills the requirements of all major stakeholders, including CISOs, developers, and security professionals. It provides mechanisms for all significant operations to safeguard the application from cyber-attacks, ensure its compliance, upscale performance, and drive business growth.

Whether it’s a desktop, mobile, or web-based application, Checkmarx can be used for all of them. It’s preferred to use the Checkmarx One platform for app security. It will enable you to leverage the advanced SAST, SCA, SCS, API, DAST, IoC, and container security functionalities.

Further, Checkmarx is way more than just testing, as it holds the following characteristics:

It’s compatible with all significant SDLC models and programming languages.
It supports complying with regulatory standards per the industry and use case.
It automatically calculates risks and helps you prioritize vulnerabilities.
You can use it to gain insight into open-source exploitable loopholes in your application.
It can be connected with IDEs to detect and resolve in the early stage of app development.
JIRA can also be integrated with Checkmarx for efficient collaboration and task tracking.
It provides information and guides about the vulnerabilities that you will be patching.

Additional App Security Tips For Better Data Safeguarding

Besides the tools used for application security, you should consider following the tricks, tips, and professional app protection approaches below.

You should always use a Code Signing Certificate to encrypt and hash the source code. In addition, it will build the organization’s reputation and let you eliminate Unknown Publisher Warning.
SSL/TLS certificate must be configured for web-based applications to protect the data in transit.
You should use legitimate development, testing, deployment, and maintenance tools.
Third-party components, such as APIs, must be prevented to reduce the attack surface.
An application must be tested on multiple platforms using both manual and automatic tools for better insight.
The developers should follow the coding standards and remove duplicate code before publishing the application.
You should focus on securing the software supply chain and also check the SBOM of the assets used for app development.

Similarly, there are many more approaches to follow, which you can learn from NIST guides and by consulting with a top application development firm.

Concluding Up

Application security is a critical matter, and it’s necessary for organizations to secure them, as a single infiltration can cause a loss of millions.

You can use the application security tools, such as Veracode, Qualys platform, GitLab, Trend Micro cloud solution, and Checkmarx. All these solutions are at the top five ranks and fulfill the requirements of small, medium, and large enterprises.

In addition, the features of the mentioned tools let you discover vulnerabilities, streamline security in the DevOps approach, secure the software supply chain, improve collaboration, and prevent cyber-attacks. Thus, to ensure that illegitimate actors are not on your app, you should start using such app security tools.

What is an Application Security Tool? Top 5 App Security Tools

An Insight Into Application Security and Associated Tools

What To Look for In an App Security Tool