Application control is a security practice that blocks or restricts unauthorized applications from executing in ways that put data at risk. The control functions vary based on the business purpose of the specific application, but the main objective is to help ensure the privacy and security of data used by and transmitted between applications. Some of these control functions include:
- Completeness checks – controls ensure records processing from initiation to completion
- Validity checks – controls ensure only valid data is input or processed
- Identification – controls ensure unique, irrefutable identification of all users
- Authentication – controls provide an application system authentication mechanism
- Authorization – controls ensure access to the application system by approved business users only
- Input controls – controls ensure data integrity feeds into the application system from upstream sources
- Forensic controls – controls ensure scientifically and mathematically correct data, based on inputs and outputs
Simply put, application controls ensure the proper security coverage of any given application and the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its associated data. With the proper application controls, businesses and organizations greatly reduce the risks and threats associated with application usage because applications are prevented from executing if they put the network or sensitive data at risk.
Features & Benefits of Application Control
Companies have grown increasingly dependent upon applications in day-to-day business operations. With web-based, cloud-based, and third-party applications at the core of today’s business processes, companies are faced with the challenge of monitoring and controlling data security threats while operating efficiently and productively. With application control, companies of all sizes can eliminate the risks posed by malicious, illegal, and unauthorized software and network access.
Most application control solutions include whitelisting and blacklisting capabilities to show organizations which applications to trust and allow to execute and which to stop, but it doesn't end there. Other common functions include:
- Identifying and controlling which applications are in your IT environment and which to add to the IT environment
- Automated identification of trusted software that has authorization to run
- Prevention of all other malicious, untrusted, unwanted, or otherwise unauthorized applications from executing
- Elimination of unknown and unwanted applications in organizations' networks
- Identification of all applications running within the endpoint environment
- Protection against exploits of unpatched OS and third-party application vulnerabilities
These functions directly benefit organizations by improving their security posture and ensuring the privacy of their sensitive data. More specifically, these benefits include:
- The reduction of IT complexity and application risk
- Reduction of risks and costs associated with malware
- Improvement of overall network stability
Application Controls Simplify Data Environments
Most application control solutions also allow for visibility into applications, users, and content. This is helpful for understanding the data your enterprise owns and controls, its storage locations, which users have access, where access points lie, and the data transmission process. These steps are required for data discovery and classification for risk management and regulatory compliance. Application control supports these processes and allows organizations to keep their finger on the pulse of what is happening within their network.
Application controls give organizations knowledge about key areas regarding applications, web traffic, threats, and data patterns. Users can also benefit from application controls by gaining a better understanding of applications or threats, applications’ key features and behavioral characteristics, details on who uses an application, and details on those affected by a threat. Organizations also gain knowledge about traffic sources and destinations, security rules, and zones to get a complete picture of application usage patterns. This information then allows organizations to make more informed decisions on how to secure their applications and identify risky behavior. As they are making those decisions, their application control solutions are automatically protecting their networks with whitelisting and blocking capabilities.
