Help AG application code review allows customers to get a security audit in the source code they have developed when creating in-house developed applications. Our application code review services take a practical approach to identifying source code defects from a security perspective.

The intention of these services is to ensure that applications are not developed with code related security issues embedded in the application, which will later lead to vulnerabilities and insecure applications. Our services include practical recommendations on how to address identified issues allowing developers to fast-track the mitigation process, hereby allowing a quicker time-to-service for new applications, while still delivering secure applications. The services can be delivered across a number of development languages such as JAVA, C, Python, Ruby on Rails etc.

One of the cornerstones in any IT security solution is the Network Firewall. There are many vendors offering technical devices in this field, some with specific feature-sets and functionality, however, one common fact in all of the solutions available is that the firewall is never better than the policy installed on it.

Very often a firewall policy would be deployed and the environment would be changed, but the firewall rules would remain unchanged with the environment.

Due to the extensive exposure to firewall solutions from a wide field of vendors, help AG can offer expert advice on the current deployed firewall policy and matching the existing deployment against the IT Information Security standard deployed such as ISO27001, PCI and ADSIC.

help AG can also advise on operational aspects in firewall management such as log correlation, log retention and day to day investigation of events.

help AG Middle East employs a large team of Security Industry Experts who have a year-long experience in implementing innovative security solutions. help AG can assist in implementing solutions by the vendors, which help AG is working together with.

This means help AG can deliver turn-key security solutions and infrastructure projects in all phases from conceptualization to planning, implementation and operation.

With our consistent focus on achieving the highest possible technical capabilities in each of our core focus technologies we can deliver technical implementation services at the highest standard available in the industry.

With our vast experience we can assist in undertaking a full project, engage in any phase of a project or assist in controlling already implemented solutions. Any large scale project delivered is following the help AG SPIEC project management framework ensuring the timely delivery of a project and a clear impact analysis of any changes to design, scope and other changes that may surface during the life of a project.

The objective of information security training is to ensure that personnel is aware of the organization’s information security policy, guidelines and procedures.

In addition, these training sessions cover issues such as definition and purpose of information security, information security threats related to usage of e-mail, Internet and corporate networks, legislation concerning information security can also be covered.

Training can be customized to target a number of key personnel groups in the customer environment such as Information Security Training for management, IT personnel and users.

A Network Security Audit is an important tool for any organization in order to understand the precautions taken against the everyday security risks. Quite often many technical solutions have been deployed in order to fix a specific security problem, but due to misconfiguration or lack of understanding of the technology or the problem trying to be solved, only limited value is gained from the solution.

Through the extensive experience gained by the help AG senior technical team we can offer a holistic view of the network security implemented in an organization.

Our Network Security Assessment can be used as an important planning tool in addressing identified issues and handling security objectives at hand.

The purpose of a help AG penetration test is to inspect the real impact of weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the target environment.

Testing concentrates on attacking the target environment with tools commonly used by hackers and other attackers. Also new tools are developed when it is required for the exploitation of a found vulnerability and even source code review can be included in a penetration test. Testing varies depending on the target environment, and therefore each penetration test is designed specifically according to the target system.

The goal of penetration testing is to break into the target system and/or to access confidential information. However, the success of penetration testing depends on the security level of target systems.

help AG does not guarantee that penetration tests result in a successful break-in, but in case a penetration test is successful, help AG can offer consulting in addressing detected issues, either by adding technical controls or changing the security setup fencing the tested system.

During a platform audit help AG engineers will perform a full platform audit on UNIX, Windows and other operating systems, mapping the services in use, if the services are outdated or unpatched hereby documenting the security risks related to the services. This approach is an essential part of ensuring the overall security of the systems in operation in an organization.

By verifying the configuration of individual machines, in addition to network penetration audits, a more in-depth security configuration can be achieved.

The results of the audit will show if the system’s security level is appropriate for the role and purpose of the system, and whether it encompasses any defense-in-depth or solely depends on external protection mechanisms.

In the field of IT Security technical controls, help AG is often faced with the issue that certain customer requirements may not be fully met by utilizing off-the-shelf IT Security Solutions. Therefore, help AG's team of skilled security consultants is  often enhancing the functionality of vendor solutions.

This could, for instance, be writing customer signatures for IPS and Antivirus for Symantec SEP, IPS signatures for IPS systems, client application enhancements for Symantec DLP and advanced website protection utilizing Ergon Airlock and the F5 BigIP Platform.

Custom functionality development is delivered as part of the help AG consultancy services and is priced based on consumption of time.

Help AG residential engineering services allow customers to outsource the full or partial operations of their security infrastructure to Help AG, which will provide residential engineers handling the day-to-day operation, configuration and tuning of security platforms.

Hybrid models where Help AG’s helpdesk handles issue management and configuration changes  combined with onsite resources within agreed timeframes can be delivered if required.

Vulnerability analysis externally or internally is a network security service, the objective of which is to find out possible vulnerabilities and security weaknesses in network components and to provide recommendations for actions to protect the organization network against discovered vulnerabilities and security weaknesses.

Vulnerabilities and security weaknesses are analysed by utilizing a highly effective combination of network security analysis tools, which provide extensive and up to date coverage of security checks. help AG security specialists analyse the reports and results produced by the different network security analysis tools. This is done to ensure that the given recommendations to solve security problems are suitable for the client’s network environment.

A comprehensive audit report categorizes the revealed security flaws according to their priority and provides recommendations for fixing the identified problems.

All organizations are constantly looking into optimizing work flows, information management and processes. Modern applications are replacing legacy workflow and optimizing how information can be stored and accessed. Due to the sensitivity of the data stored and accessed through applications it is of extreme importance to understand if an application is secure. 
 
help AG can assist in identifying security issues in applications by performing an application audit.
 
An application audit can consist of a number of procedures, the purpose of which is to identify potential  security issues in the application. Any identified issues will be covered in a comprehensive audit report, which can be used by the client in the efforts of addressing security issues either through internal development or in communication with external application developers.
 
Our audits can cover such areas as:
 
1.    Exploitation and Vulnerability Assessment
Programmatic security suffers due to a vulnerable algorithmic logic or failure to follow secure coding standards
exploiting platform’s vulnerabilities. This classification of attacks works regardless of coding practices since it exploits the hosting platform rather than the code itself.
 
2.    Authentication Analysis
Authentication methods have long been identified and developed into ready made components or modules, allowing developers to facilitate their applications with privilege granting and identification capabilities. However, the integrate working of those methods are very well known by malicious cyber groups, and well documented instructions on how to defeat those mechanisms are publicly available among those groups. The auditor will identify weak authentication implementations during this phase. All findings will be reported as well as their countermeasures.

3.    Application Authorization
Application authorization is the most commonly incorrectly implemented component in application programming. Authorization can be hijacked, tampered and enumerated, all of which would allow an anonymous user to escalate their access levels to administrative access. Our auditor(s) will be able to document and report necessary recommendations for counter-measuring such attacks.

4.  Input Validation and Coding Best Practices
Exploitation and penetration reveal known vulnerabilities of a system. But in order to protect against zero day risks, standards for input handling must be put into practice. The auditor will focus mainly on studying code handling of inputs through the application and recommending other controls that are to be put into practice.

5.  Database Targeting Attacks
The auditor will attempt to execute various attacks by exploiting database vulnerabilities during this phase. Database vulnerabilities are usually most dangerous whereby penetrating such security weaknesses the attacker can bypass all security measures and execute the desired malicious code. Database attacks can be tunnelled through the application layer which not only makes it dangerous, but also easily accessible.

6.  XML Targeting Attacks
XML is one of the fastest growing programmable technologies that is getting vast support by many browsers and other different gadget based applications. If XML is not well implemented, an attacker can manipulate XML entities in order to perform desired cross site scripting attacks and other malicious activity.

7.  Attacking the Application Management Console
In this phase, the auditor will focus on attacking various application management technologies such as remote desktop, SSH, content management systems and checking for other admin misconfigurations.

8. Web Client Cross Browser Attacks
The auditor will check for the possibility of hacking other users using the same system through cross browser attacks. Server countermeasures as well as other browser countermeasures that can be enforced via active directory will be reported.