The Best Web Application Security Practices
Digital Revolution has brought with it a ton of benefits but at the same time, the number of challenges around safeguarding personal and financial data are also increasing every day. In today’s time, web applications constitute an important part of any business and tend to carry sensitive information about both, the customers/users as well as the company. Including web application security best practices at the time of application development can go a long way in ensuring applications remain free of risks and vulnerabilities.
A good web design company aims at providing web design services that incorporate these practices at the time of initial design and the coding phases as it can help in avoiding having to find and fix any bugs at later stages. In this blog article we talk about some of the top practices that experts at iTrobes Technologies recommend any web development company & its developers should keep in mind to safely build applications:
Web application security best practices developers & businesses should pay attention to:
1. Deploy a Secure SDLC Management Process
The SSDLC or the secure software development life cycle management process refers to the product life cycle from the point of view of product security. When implemented correctly, this process helps in ensuring that products in their life cycles are built in a secure environment, developed/maintained by employees who are security-trained and securely reach the customers. SDLC pans out a holistic approach opted by every good web design company while developing a new product from scratch, through all of its activities & development, till the time it is completely mature & deployed on the market until the end of its life cycle.
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2. Use Diverse Security Tools
DevSecOps
The shift-left approach, also known as the DevSecOps aims to detect security holes from the very beginning & prevents as well as resolves security issues as quickly as they arise. It enables the web application development team to spot and resolve security problems at all stages.
SAST & DAST
SAST or Static application security testing is a scanning method based around the source code. & DAST or the Dynamic application security testing uses remote testing of the code deployed & running, to find openings. Both of these are for testing proprietary code during the development phase and can play an important role in shutting security holes.
Penetration Testing
This is an advanced security testing method and uses a combination of scanning tools & exploitation techniques in order to find openings. With this method, you can try to steal data, try and gain access, compromise users or cause disruption. This prepares you well for all the real threats of the world as it unearths multiple potential risks in the application & makes it a strong one.
3. Limit User Access to Your Data
Restricting access to your data is simple but one of the important web application security best practices. You should figure out who needs to access each of the specific resources and create access rules. At all times, you should make sure that access privileges remain up-to-date, this can be done by removing active credentials as soon as access to the data is no longer needed.
4. Conduct Security Exercises
One of the most effective ways for a web development company to check if the sensitive data is safe is to conduct multiple mock attacks on the application. This is also similar to penetration testing but those tests are just spot-checks. To fully evaluate how good your security measures are, the best way is to conduct continuous security drills.
One such example is the red vs blue team exercise. Here the red teaming refers to hiring an external team that constantly tries to attack & breach your security, while the in-house blue team is responsible for fighting it. A good red team over the course understands how to push the developers to be prepared at all times. Often, a good software consulting company can help you assemble a dedicated red team that performs mock attacks like social engineering, phishing, DDoS attacks, and many more so that the application is prepared to deal with the real ones.
5. Automate & Incorporate Security Tools
Automation is critical because mitigating countless vulnerabilities that exist by using a manual approach is virtually not possible. All simple and basic tasks should be automated so that teams have the time to focus on more challenging assignments. Automated tools also help web design services providers to take care of the otherwise unmanageable testing processes. This is also why many security tools nowadays are developed keeping automation and integration in mind.
6. Encryption
Encryption of data at transit and rest is key to maintaining web application security best practices. Basic encryption by a web development company usually includes the use of SSL with a current certificate. Saving sensitive data of the users, such as their IDs or passwords in plain text can be dangerous as it could open room for MITM (man-in-the-middle) attacks and expose the data. Therefore, web application development must be done ensuring that the strongest encryption algorithms are always used.
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7. Update & Patch
Regularly Timely installing software updates & patches are a very effective way to maintain software security. One shouldn’t waste time trying to solve problems that can already be rectified through updates and patches. However, each new update should be planned well as this needs designing of the proper architecture so that any API compatibility issues can be avoided at the time of upgrading to newer versions.
Conclusion
Security practices should be thought of from day one of an application’s lifecycle and not when something goes wrong and needs fixing. By following web application security best practices during the initial stages, developers and businesses can make sure that applications are safe from any attacks and the customer data remains secure. A good web design company that has years of experience in creating successful and safe web applications development is mostly up to date with the kind of developments happening in the cyber world. One should always rely on quality web design services that incorporate the best practices and always pays extra attention to validate and certify that the app is tested against all possible threats.
No matter the stage of your web application development, professionals at iTrobes can guide you on every little detail and implement projects that fight any potential attacks while creating a sense of trust with all the users of the application. Whether you’re looking for top-notch software consulting for an already built application or need a team to build a strong secure web app from the ground up, reach out to us today. We got you covered on all grounds, at all the stages of your development process.
