The Real Issue Is Application Security

Computer flaws are almost constantly headline news. Vulnerabilities are discovered in operating systems and mainstream retail applications and patches are released almost daily. The unseen risk though is to the proprietary applications that drive many corporations in-house databases and web-based systems. These home grown or custom-built applications do not receive the same level of scrutiny as the more commonly used retail products. Many companies may feel a sense of pseudo-security from the fact that hackers don't really know their application exists or how to get to it, but this sort of "security through obscurity" has proven itself to not be secure at all. This Jerusalem Post article highlights some of the issues surrounding these custom applications- especially within financial and banking computer networks. Hackers hone in on the crown jewels.