In the modern and ultra-connected world we use software applications, or apps, for everything. There are legions of game apps that provide idle entertainment, including everything from Flappy Bird to Angry Birds. There are apps that assist in manufacturing, apps that improve home security, apps that tell you what pants match your shirt, and apps to help you shop for pickles at the supermarket.

There are all manner of apps that assist with government functions, from streamlining the process of issuing licenses to drivers — and maybe even replacing physical licenses altogether — to disseminating food safety and inspection information. There are apps to monitor the weather, and apps to block sales calls. We already use apps for almost everything, and more are on the way.

All of those apps are potential open doors to the inner workings of valuable networks and systems, so comprehensive and effective security is a key element of app design, creation, and deployment. Now there’s a new certification to help security specialists gain the skills and knowledge needed to “mitigate the risk of losing millions of dollars to security compromises that may arise in every step of the application development process.”

The new Certified Application Security Engineer (CASE) credential, created specifically to address the need for comprehensive application security,  was launched at the end of June by EC-Council. A member-supported professional association, EC-Council administers the popular Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) credential and proudly claims to be the world’s largest cybersecurity technical certification body.

EC-Council president and CEO Jay Bavisi said in a press release announcing the launch of CASE that increased vulnerability of organizations and enterprises due to the rapid proliferation of apps spurred EC-Council’s creation of the new cybersecurity certification.

“Until a few years ago, network perimeter defense was considered to be the king of security. However, today, that is just not enough,” Bavisi said. “This is 2018 and the hackers are smarter than before. They don’t just target the external layer of your network, which is already well-protected; rather, they target internal vulnerabilities, in your application code.”

EC-Council reports that the application security market is projected to grow from $2.7 billion last year to $9 billion in 2022. Further underscoring the need for application security, EC-Council reports that the average annual salary of an application developer in the United States is $68,000, while the average annual salary of an application security engineer is $121.924.

Additional information about the CASE credential is available online.