How to Protect Your Business from Malware in Custom Apps An expanding network of cybercriminals is taking aim at the hidden flaws lurking inside the custom-created apps on your company's website. Here's how to safeguard application security for your customers -- and your business.

When Pakistani IT professional Sohaib Athar inadvertently live-tweeted the American raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, he didn't expect to become an overnight internet celeb. And he certainly didn't expect the follow-up: A hacker installed malware on Athar's blog. His millions of new visitors--and potential new customers--were at risk of becoming malware victims.

Security attacks on businesses--from single-person operations to some of the corporate world's giants--are on the rise. It's a new and increasingly ugly world out there for companies doing business on the web.

Even corporations with enormous resources and teams are vulnerable. Earlier in 2011, hackers breached the credit card and personal data of at least 70 million Sony PlayStation Network users. And RSA, a Bedford, Mass.-based security firm that provides security to more than 90 percent of the Fortune 500, was itself compromised by hackers who exploited a hidden flaw in certain software the company hosted. Sony expects a $3.2 billion net loss for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, in part because of the attack. And RSA now faces persistent concerns that its once invulnerable security products have been rendered less effective.