How to Setup SecureNow to Protect Your Node.js Application

Introduction

SecureNow is a comprehensive security monitoring platform designed specifically for Node.js applications. It provides real-time threat detection, intelligent alerting, and AI-powered analysis of your application's traces and logs. In this guide, we'll walk you through the complete setup process and show you how to leverage all of SecureNow's powerful features to protect your application.

Whether you're running a small API or a large-scale microservices architecture, SecureNow adapts to your needs and provides enterprise-grade security monitoring with minimal performance impact.

Quick Start: Installing SecureNow

1. Install the SecureNow SDK

First, install the SecureNow Node.js SDK in your project:

npm install @securenow/node-sdk
# or
yarn add @securenow/node-sdk

2. Get Your API Key

Sign up for a free SecureNow account and create a new application to get your API key. You'll find it in your dashboard under Applications → Your App → API Keys.

3. Basic Integration

Add SecureNow to your main application file (usually app.js or server.js):

const express = require('express');
const { SecureNow } = require('@securenow/node-sdk');

// Initialize SecureNow (should be done early in your app)
const secureNow = new SecureNow({
  apiKey: process.env.SECURENOW_API_KEY,
  appName: 'my-nodejs-app',
  environment: process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development'
});

const app = express();

// Enable SecureNow middleware
app.use(secureNow.middleware());

// Your existing routes
app.get('/api/users', (req, res) => {
  // SecureNow automatically monitors this endpoint
  res.json({ users: [] });
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server running with SecureNow protection');
});

4. Environment Configuration

Add your SecureNow configuration to your environment variables:

# .env file
SECURENOW_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
SECURENOW_ENVIRONMENT=production
SECURENOW_DEBUG=false

# Optional: Custom configuration
SECURENOW_SAMPLE_RATE=1.0
SECURENOW_ENABLE_PROFILING=true

Advanced Configuration

Custom Instrumentation

For more granular control, you can manually instrument specific parts of your application:

const { SecureNow, trace } = require('@securenow/node-sdk');

// Custom trace for business logic
async function processPayment(paymentData) {
  const span = trace.startSpan('payment.process');
  
  try {
    // Add custom attributes
    span.setAttributes({
      'payment.amount': paymentData.amount,
      'payment.currency': paymentData.currency,
      'user.id': paymentData.userId
    });
    
    const result = await paymentService.process(paymentData);
    
    span.setStatus({ code: trace.SpanStatusCode.OK });
    return result;
  } catch (error) {
    span.setStatus({ 
      code: trace.SpanStatusCode.ERROR, 
      message: error.message 
    });
    throw error;
  } finally {
    span.end();
  }
}

Database Monitoring

SecureNow automatically instruments popular databases, but you can enhance monitoring:

// For MongoDB with Mongoose
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const { mongoosePlugin } = require('@securenow/node-sdk');

mongoose.plugin(mongoosePlugin);

// For PostgreSQL with Sequelize
const { Sequelize } = require('sequelize');
const { sequelizeHooks } = require('@securenow/node-sdk');

const sequelize = new Sequelize(/* config */);
sequelizeHooks.install(sequelize);

Monitoring Features

Real-time Performance Monitoring

SecureNow provides comprehensive performance monitoring out of the box:

• Request/Response Tracking: Monitor all HTTP requests, response times, and status codes
• Database Query Analysis: Track slow queries, connection pool usage, and query patterns
• Memory & CPU Monitoring: Real-time system resource usage and memory leak detection
• Error Rate Tracking: Automatic error categorization and trend analysis

Custom Metrics

Add business-specific metrics to your monitoring dashboard:

const { metrics } = require('@securenow/node-sdk');

// Counter for business events
const orderCounter = metrics.createCounter({
  name: 'orders_total',
  description: 'Total number of orders processed'
});

// Histogram for custom timing
const processingTime = metrics.createHistogram({
  name: 'order_processing_duration',
  description: 'Time taken to process orders'
});

// Usage in your code
app.post('/api/orders', async (req, res) => {
  const startTime = Date.now();
  
  try {
    await processOrder(req.body);
    orderCounter.inc({ status: 'success' });
  } catch (error) {
    orderCounter.inc({ status: 'error' });
    throw error;
  } finally {
    processingTime.observe(Date.now() - startTime);
  }
});

Security Event Monitoring

SecureNow automatically detects and monitors security events:

• SQL Injection Attempts: Detects malicious SQL patterns in requests
• XSS Attack Detection: Identifies cross-site scripting attempts
• Rate Limiting Violations: Monitors for suspicious request patterns
• Authentication Failures: Tracks failed login attempts and brute force attacks

Alerting Configuration

Setting Up Alert Channels

Configure multiple alert channels to ensure you never miss critical issues:

// Configure alerts programmatically
const { alerts } = require('@securenow/node-sdk');

// Email alerts
alerts.addChannel({
  type: 'email',
  name: 'dev-team',
  config: {
    recipients: ['dev@company.com', 'security@company.com'],
    severity: ['critical', 'high']
  }
});

// Slack integration
alerts.addChannel({
  type: 'slack',
  name: 'security-alerts',
  config: {
    webhookUrl: process.env.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL,
    channel: '#security-alerts',
    severity: ['critical', 'high', 'medium']
  }
});

// PagerDuty for critical issues
alerts.addChannel({
  type: 'pagerduty',
  name: 'on-call',
  config: {
    integrationKey: process.env.PAGERDUTY_KEY,
    severity: ['critical']
  }
});

Custom Alert Rules

Create custom alert rules based on your application's specific needs:

// Error rate threshold
alerts.createRule({
  name: 'High Error Rate',
  condition: 'error_rate > 5%',
  timeWindow: '5m',
  severity: 'high',
  channels: ['dev-team', 'security-alerts']
});

// Response time alert
alerts.createRule({
  name: 'Slow Response Time',
  condition: 'avg_response_time > 2000ms',
  timeWindow: '10m',
  severity: 'medium',
  channels: ['dev-team']
});

// Security event alert
alerts.createRule({
  name: 'Security Threat Detected',
  condition: 'security_events > 10',
  timeWindow: '1m',
  severity: 'critical',
  channels: ['security-alerts', 'on-call']
});

// Custom business metric alert
alerts.createRule({
  name: 'Payment Processing Issues',
  condition: 'failed_payments > 5',
  timeWindow: '5m',
  severity: 'high',
  channels: ['dev-team', 'business-alerts']
});

Alert Suppression and Escalation

Prevent alert fatigue with intelligent suppression and escalation:

// Configure alert suppression
alerts.configureSuppression({
  // Don't send duplicate alerts within 15 minutes
  duplicateWindow: '15m',
  
  // Escalate if not acknowledged within 30 minutes
  escalationTimeout: '30m',
  
  // Group related alerts together
  groupBy: ['service', 'environment'],
  
  // Maintenance window (no alerts during deployments)
  maintenanceWindows: [
    {
      start: '02:00',
      end: '04:00',
      timezone: 'UTC',
      days: ['sunday']
    }
  ]
});

AI-Powered Trace and Log Analysis

Intelligent Anomaly Detection

SecureNow's AI engine continuously learns your application's normal behavior patterns and automatically detects anomalies:

• Behavioral Analysis: Identifies unusual request patterns, traffic spikes, and user behavior
• Performance Anomalies: Detects sudden changes in response times, error rates, and resource usage
• Security Threats: Uses machine learning to identify sophisticated attack patterns
• Predictive Alerts: Warns about potential issues before they become critical

Automated Root Cause Analysis

When issues occur, SecureNow's AI automatically analyzes traces and logs to identify root causes:

// Enable AI analysis for your traces
const { ai } = require('@securenow/node-sdk');

// Configure AI analysis
ai.configure({
  enableRootCauseAnalysis: true,
  enableAnomalyDetection: true,
  enablePredictiveAlerts: true,
  
  // Custom analysis rules
  analysisRules: [
    {
      name: 'Database Performance',
      pattern: 'slow_query',
      action: 'analyze_query_plan'
    },
    {
      name: 'Memory Leak Detection',
      pattern: 'memory_growth',
      action: 'heap_analysis'
    }
  ]
});

// Manual analysis trigger
app.get('/api/analyze/:traceId', async (req, res) => {
  const analysis = await ai.analyzeTrace(req.params.traceId);
  
  res.json({
    rootCause: analysis.rootCause,
    recommendations: analysis.recommendations,
    confidence: analysis.confidence,
    relatedIssues: analysis.relatedIssues
  });
});

Smart Log Aggregation

SecureNow's AI automatically categorizes and correlates logs across your application:

// Enhanced logging with AI categorization
const { logger } = require('@securenow/node-sdk');

// Structured logging for better AI analysis
logger.info('User login successful', {
  userId: user.id,
  ip: req.ip,
  userAgent: req.get('User-Agent'),
  loginMethod: 'password',
  // AI will automatically categorize this as an authentication event
  category: 'auth.success'
});

logger.warn('Suspicious activity detected', {
  userId: user.id,
  ip: req.ip,
  suspiciousActions: ['multiple_failed_logins', 'unusual_location'],
  riskScore: 0.8,
  // AI will correlate this with other security events
  category: 'security.threat'
});

// Custom log analysis
logger.error('Payment processing failed', {
  orderId: order.id,
  amount: order.amount,
  errorCode: 'CARD_DECLINED',
  paymentMethod: 'credit_card',
  // AI will group similar payment errors for trend analysis
  category: 'payment.error'
});

AI-Generated Insights and Recommendations

Get actionable insights and optimization recommendations powered by AI:

• Performance Optimization: Identifies bottlenecks and suggests code improvements
• Security Hardening: Recommends security best practices based on detected vulnerabilities
• Capacity Planning: Predicts resource needs based on usage trends
• Error Prevention: Suggests code changes to prevent recurring issues

Dashboard and Visualization

Access your SecureNow dashboard at https://dashboard.securenow.com to:

• View real-time application metrics and security events
• Analyze trace data with interactive visualizations
• Configure alert rules and notification channels
• Review AI-generated insights and recommendations
• Export data for compliance and reporting

Best Practices

Security

• Store your API key securely using environment variables
• Use different API keys for different environments
• Regularly rotate your API keys
• Enable IP whitelisting in production

Performance

• Adjust sampling rates based on your traffic volume
• Use async logging to minimize performance impact
• Configure appropriate buffer sizes for high-throughput applications
• Monitor SecureNow's own resource usage

Monitoring

• Set up alerts for both technical and business metrics
• Use meaningful names and descriptions for custom metrics
• Regularly review and update alert thresholds
• Create runbooks for common alert scenarios

Conclusion

SecureNow provides comprehensive security monitoring and AI-powered analysis for your Node.js applications. With minimal setup, you get enterprise-grade security monitoring, intelligent alerting, and actionable insights that help you maintain a secure and performant application.

Start with the basic integration and gradually add more advanced features as your needs grow. The AI-powered analysis will continuously learn from your application's behavior, providing increasingly accurate threat detection and performance optimization recommendations.

For more advanced configuration options and enterprise features, check out our comprehensive documentation or contact our support team.