Methods to Securely Run Traditional Software and Applications

From T-Mobile to Facebook, examples of information breaches are usually not hard to seek out lately. A lot of these attacks are successful due to a server misconfiguration or compromised user login credentials. Some attacks are the results of social engineering or brute force. And others, still, result from improperly-configured web application firewalls (WAFs) and API gateways.

One other most important attack vector for hackers and bad actors? Unpatched software applications. 

Tragically, attacks of opportunity against unpatched software are almost entirely preventable. So why is software left unpatched? Why do these vulnerabilities persist? And the way can business owners and IT professionals follow best practices around software patching to maintain applications and environments protected from nefarious parties and external threats?

On this post, we’ll discuss what software patches are and why they’re necessary in securing your network. We are going to detail methods to cope with End-of-Life software that is not any longer supported and secured by the publisher. And we’ll dive into how VMware Private Cloud will help provide an answer and offer a secure onramp to the cloud for applications of every type.

Daily applications running on servers in your environment are always being updated. These updates could be to enhance the applying’s performance, add features, or fix security vulnerabilities. The publisher of the software typically distributes patches and updates via its customer support portal, but many organizations prefer to develop their very own patching processes or depend on others to keep up theirs.

Some publishers work with infrastructure providers to mechanically deploy updates and patches. In other cases, platform providers will proactively manage updates and patches as a part of their offerings.

If not properly managed or configured, the software will be an open door to hackers attempting to access a network or technology environment. Unpatched software will create significant security issues. Even worse, the longer software stays unpatched, the greater the danger of intrusion.

Even with proper use, software applications require regular maintenance. When a software patch or update is applied, it addresses a vulnerability or problem with the software itself. In case your network has a known opening that hackers can exploit, not patching it in a timely manner may cause significant damage to each your online business and your repute. 

Potential vulnerability issues are only compounded when a corporation is running End-of-Life or EOL software. End-of-Life software is software that is not any longer supported or updated by the publisher. EOL software becomes a security risk because known vulnerabilities won’t ever receive patches. Even worse, as latest vulnerabilities are discovered by hackers, they, too, will remain unpatched as nobody is actively working on security for the applying. This makes these systems prime targets for attackers.

For instance, one of the vital well-known EOL vulnerabilities is inside Windows Server 2003. Since the software was End-of-Life, critical security vulnerabilities were discovered after the publisher had stopped providing updates and patches. This legacy operating system was supported for over a decade. Nevertheless, Microsoft ended support for Windows Server 2003 on July 14, 2015. A report from Verizon shows that 67 percent of breaches exploit software vulnerabilities which can be a minimum of five years old. Because so many organizations struggle to update or migrate applications and services which can be at End-of-Life or not supported, this data point becomes much more necessary.

If you happen to mix legacy software running with unpatched vulnerabilities, it is simple to see why so many organizations struggle with enterprise cybersecurity strategies. And as we proceed to see stories of successful hacks, thefts of information, and ransomware attacks on latest applications, it is evident that traditional approaches to security aren’t any longer enough. 

Listed here are three security advantages of using the cloud:

The cloud provides application security by hosting your applications outside your network. In this manner, hackers or cybercriminals cannot access the server that hosts the applying as easily as they may if it was hosted on a tool inside your network. Which means that even when an application is vulnerable to exploitation, you’ve a greater probability of detecting the intrusion before data is breached or compromised.

Further, you may share security responsibilities across your organization. Cloud services like VMware Private Cloud allow for greater collaboration between departments like compliance and IT. These solutions take the responsibility of securing access to systems and data away from individual teams or departments who may not have enough knowledge or authority to guard company assets.

Finally, cloud services provide self-service options to assist your employees access the applications and services they need without exposing your network to risk. Because applications are hosted in a secure cloud, users can authenticate from outside your organization’s network boundary. This helps reduce the danger of security incidents for everybody involved.

Along with self-service capabilities and 24/7/365 monitoring, the cloud offers higher application security. The isolation of your applications from internal networks means there are fewer opportunities for attacks to occur, even when one application is compromised. And since most cloud services mechanically push updates, you haven’t got to fret about outdated or unpatched software which may otherwise contain vulnerabilities.

Cloud-based services are designed to provide your organization higher visibility, more control over how applications are used, and the flexibleness to scale quickly. And by offering access outside of your network boundary, cloud services allow employees to access information once they need it – without putting sensitive data in danger.

Traditional IT often struggles to observe End-of-Life software because these systems are sometimes neglected until a security incident occurs. In today’s digital landscape, leaving no stone unturned in your seek for potential threats is crucial to reducing the danger of malicious attacks across all software platforms. 

More importantly, it’s critical that you’ve an efficient strategy in place to detect intrusions before they will do harm. This implies updating your IT security strategy to incorporate 24/7/365 application security monitoring, cloud solutions to mitigate risk, and virtual patching.

A serious advantage of running your individual private cloud is that you simply maintain control over who can access data and applications inside it. You furthermore may maintain control over the operating system, network, and storage which can be used.

VMware Private Cloud means that you can configure your cloud environment to supply access based on predefined roles inside a corporation. This offers administrators full control over who can access data and the power to be selective in the way it is exposed. As well as, VMware Private Cloud offers control over the operating system, network access, and storage used. 

• Maintain your organization’s security posture.
• Ensure operational stability.
• Protect against unauthorized or malicious changes.
• Closely monitor activity inside an application stack.

With VMware Private Cloud, you maintain control over your applications even while they’re running within the cloud.

VMware’s approach to the cloud delivers the perfect of each worlds. Applications aren’t any longer locked in a server room or data center, but you maintain control over them while they’re running on VMware Private Cloud.

VMware Private Cloud brings the advantages of open source software to your application stack while still maintaining a secure environment for traditional applications and workloads. This approach means that you can leverage best-of-breed software while protecting your organization from vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers. From a security perspective, this approach is sensible since it means that you can run modern applications while maintaining the normal level of security and control that has been missing from cloud models up to now.

VMware Private Cloud is built on vSphere, which makes it easy so that you can migrate applications that require Windows Server to your private cloud. And since you may integrate applications from AWS and Microsoft, VMware Private Cloud also gives you the flexibleness to run modern applications alongside legacy software.

In case your organization is challenged to maintain software patched and updated or relies on EOL software from which you can not part, contact our team today. Liquid Web’s team of engineers and technicians understand the applying security landscape and methods to design infrastructure solutions that will help. With Liquid Web and VMware Private Cloud, you may move further into the long run with peace of mind.