Are you getting ready for the upcoming Black Hat USA 2023 event, an internationally recognized cybersecurity event providing the most technical and relevant information security research, now in its 26th year. The event is quickly approaching, taking place August 5-10, 2023, returning to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV with a 6-day program.
Ahead of the show, VMblog received an exclusive interview with Guardsquare, an industry leader in mobile application security. You’re going to want to make sure you get them on your MUST SEE list.
VMblog: Before we get into it, can you give us a quick overview of the company? What should folks know?
Guardsquare: Guardsquare is the leader in mobile application security. Our products protect apps from reverse engineering and tampering.
They provide real time threat monitoring once an app has been published and ensure developers and security teams have visibility into security issues and recommended fixes for identified risks throughout the development process.
When developers and security professionals first think about security, they usually focus on malware, zero day exploits, and other Infrastructure vulnerabilities. What is often missed is that even if your mobile device is fully patched with no vulnerabilities, the mobile app you released to the Apple App store or the Google Play store can still be reverse engineered and tampered with. Guardsquare provides developers and security professionals with the ability to effectively and efficiently protect, test and monitor their mobile applications.
VMblog: You are sponsoring the upcoming Black Hat USA event. How can attendees find you at the show? Does your booth have a theme? How many folks are you sending?
Guardsquare: The key message we want show attendees to remember from our booth is that Guardsquare products provide security and development teams with the maximum level of mobile application protection with the least amount of effort.
Attendees can visit us at booth 3017 between the North and South halls.
In addition to our CEO, Roel Caers, we will have technical resources at the show to answer attendees’ questions about mobile app security.
VMblog: Is this your first time sponsoring Black Hat? If not, how many times have you sponsored before? And, what keeps you coming back?
Guardsquare: We have sponsored Black Hat for the past six years. We believe that state-of-the-art mobile application security should be integral to all mobile applications regardless of the organization’s size or the number of users. Black Hat provides a unique opportunity to engage with a diverse set of security professionals, ranging from those just starting to think about how to secure mobile apps to well versed, experienced professionals. The discussions we have at BlackHat enable us to show how mobile application development teams can meet aggressive in-market timelines, great performance and UX and still have an uncompromising, high level of security. We benefit because we get to see how well our solutions stand up to the requirements of some of the leading security experts.
VMblog: What is your message to Black Hat attendees coming out to the show this year?
Guardsquare: Mobile applications account for 90% of mobile use and in 2022 mobile app spend surpassed $500B. With the recent explosion in the number and use of mobile apps, many organizations are relying on them more than ever to engage with customers. With this increased use and dependence comes an increase in attackers looking to gain access to sensitive data, key IP and more. AppSweep, Guardsquare’s Mobile Application Security Testing product, is a great way to get started; scan your app for free – as often as you want – to identify security risks in your mobile app.
VMblog: The show is focused on cybersecurity. What specific problems is your company and technology addressing?
Guardsquare: Guardsquare helps organizations protect, test and monitor their mobile applications to ensure they are secured from reverse engineering and tampering so they do not lose valuable IP, competitive advantage, revenue or brand trust. Even if your mobile device is fully patched with no vulnerabilities, the mobile app you released to the Apple App store or the Google Play store can still be reverse engineered and tampered with. Guardsquare helps you identify security risks and fixes through Mobile Application Security Testing; protect against reverse engineering and tampering through code hardening and RASP; and provides increased visibility with real-time threat monitoring once an app has been released / published.
VMblog: What are some of the key takeaways of your solution that Black Hat attendees should be aware of?
Guardsquare: With the increase in quantity and dependency on mobile applications, they are increasingly becoming a focus for attackers. All too often, mobile application development teams do not have the security expertise or the resources to properly protect their mobile applications. The breadth of Guardsquare’s protection, testing and monitoring solutions can be a key resource in addressing the mobile security gap.
VMblog: The market is a crowded space. What is it about your company and technology that sets you apart from the competition? What are your differentiators?
Guardsquare: What sets us apart is that Guardsquare is focused on the protection, testing and monitoring of mobile applications with developer-friendly solutions. Our products are not server-side solutions that have been retrofitted for mobile devices. Our products provide the strongest, most advanced mobile app protection and are easily integrated into your standard IDE and DevOps flow.
VMblog: Is your company launching anything new at the show? Can you give us a sneak peek?
Guardsquare: Our latest release of AppSweep, our Mobile Application Security Testing product supports scanning iOS apps as well as Android apps. This capability, available to all security professionals and developers, is mobile-specific, developer-friendly and free; it quickly scans and detects vulnerabilities and provides recommendations for addressing them.
VMblog: What will you be showing off at the show this year?
Guardsquare: We will be highlighting the power of our mobile application security testing tool – including the latest feature releases including interactive analysis and iOS scanning – which is available for free and can be fully integrated into a typical development environment.
VMblog: What are some of the top priorities you believe attendees at Black Hat should be considering for 2023/2024?
Guardsquare: Mobile!!!! The shift to mobile has been quick and so major that many companies are still trying to catch up to ensure their security posture is aligned with where it needs to be. The issues with mobile can be very different than the server side. You have to assume that your app is running in a hostile environment and ensure that it is properly protected against attacks in that environment.
VMblog: What are some of the security best practices you would deem critical?
Guardsquare: Gaining insights from our vast customer base, these are some of the key insights that we have extracted from the leaders:
- Security is an integral part of defining your apps functionality. It is not a separate process.
- Develop a comprehensive threat model for your app and your system. You will never know if you have a complete security posture if you don’t understand the nature of the attacks.
- Implementing your security solution should be integrated with developing your functionality. Delaying and trying to add it in at the end leads to compromises, incomplete solutions and schedule delays.
VMblog: If you were presenting on the keynote stage, what trends do you see that companies should be paying special attention to in 2023 and beyond?
Guardsquare: Fortunately we have an on-demand webinar exactly on that topic. To use a quote attributed to Willie Sutton, “I rob banks because that’s where the money is.” You need to focus on mobile because that’s where the world is, app publishers and attackers! Specifically:
- Attackers will discover vulnerabilities in your apps you didn’t know existed. How do you protect against what you don’t know?
- Attackers aren’t necessarily using rooted or jailbroken devices. How do you detect attackers that are increasingly getting better at hiding their intentions?
- Your app security posture is only as good as your weakest link. Do you know where that is?
Collaboration through open source security standards is one of your best weapons in your security arsenal.
VMblog: Is your company giving away any interesting tchotchke at your booth? What is it?
Guardsquare: We will be giving away our highly sought after iridescent 3D stickers. And if you want to stick around and have a deeper conversation with one of our team members at the booth, we’ve got a few limited and unique pairs of socks (think obfuscated and unobfuscated code) that you’ll want to add to your wardrobe!
VMblog: As a show sponsor, do you have any tips for attendees to better prepare for the conference?
Guardsquare: Yes! Walk the aisles with the smaller vendors. It’s here where you will discover new, cutting edge solutions that are being brought to market. Too often, attendees spend most of their time with big vendors, simply verifying what they already know. This is a great opportunity to efficiently and effectively use your time to look at many smaller companies. Prescan the list of smaller companies and group them based on technologies that you believe are relevant to what you do or need. Try to meet with all the companies within a group before starting the next group. This will give you the best ability to compare and contrast them and see which rise above the rest.
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