Case Study: Makpar Advances Cyber Posture for a Federal Agency

 Makpar’s comprehensive penetration testing and code security efforts allow their customer to proactively identify and fix vulnerabilities.

In the face of ever-increasing cyber threats, today’s federal agencies need to identify and fix vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by malicious threat actors. Thanks to comprehensive penetration testing and code security efforts, one large federal agency was able to enhance its overall cyber posture.  

Due to its significant interaction with external stakeholders, constituents, and other federal agencies, the agency needed support for its comprehensive cybersecurity strategy aimed at meeting regulatory requirements, preventing data breaches, and proactively identifying and mitigating cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

The agency customer also faced recurring medium-level security vulnerabilities in their legacy web applications, particularly related to the "Missing Secure Attribute in Encrypted Session (SSL) Cookie" issue. This vulnerability affected a significant portion of their application portfolio, necessitating a scalable solution to mitigate the risk.

To meet this need, Makpar provided comprehensive penetration testing and red teaming, threat modeling, vulnerability assessments, code security and analysis, and general security assessments.

The solution strategy also involved implementing a Scalable Threat Modeling approach, utilizing a pattern-based methodology to identify common architectural patterns across the client's applications.

From a code security and analysis perspective, Makpar's code reviewers and security engineers conducted thorough assessments, providing vulnerability reports with detailed insights into likelihood, impact, and severity.

Here are the results of this effort:

• The agency customer can identify and fix vulnerabilities before they are able to be exploited by malicious threat actors.

• The customer significantly reduced the presence of the medium level "SSL Cookie" vulnerability across their application portfolio. This proactive approach not only enhanced the security posture of their applications but also reduced the time and resources required for ongoing security assessments.

• The penetration testing team worked closely with the federal agency Security Operations Center to help them improve their ability to detect and block malicious activity on the network.

In today’s rising threat environment, penetration testing and code security is vital for any agency to understand and mitigate cyber vulnerability. Government agencies now have a method for understanding threats from external actors and how to best mitigate these threats.

Read the full case study here. Want to discuss how Makpar can help your agency enhance its overall cybersecurity posture? Get in touch with us today.