Tips To Improve Your Application's Security: The Basics
As technology advances, applications have become an integral part of everyone's daily lives, and whether you are developing applications for businesses or for the app store, it is vital your application is secure. As the digital world advances, so do the cyber threats, which is why we've created this guide the help you understand what you need to do in order to improve your application's security. We'll cover everything from DevSecOps strategy to proper testing so that you can ensure you release an application that people can trust.
Implement A DevSecOps Strategy
When it comes to security, everyone in your team should play their part, and that is where the DevSecOps strategy comes in; it provides a foundation that helps you to not only detect holes in your security but prevent them by training staff to implement proper practices in their coding or behaviors. Implementing a DevSecOps strategy will let you take control of security from the start of a project all the way through to the end. This strategy is in contrast with old practices, which left the security step until the testing stages of a project.
Carry Out A Risk Assessment
Risk assessments are vital to every business as a whole but should also be carried out for every project you undertake to ensure that the applications you deliver are secure. When you sit down to create your risk assessment, you should list the assets that need protection while identifying the threats that could lead to attacks and any vulnerabilities that you need to patch in order to secure your application. Furthermore, you should also use this time to determine if you need additional security tools to increase how secure your applications are to combat the risks.
Provide Security Training For Your Developers
Everyone should be involved in the security of a business, and during the development of an application is no different. Provide training to your developers so they can use secure coding practices, which will reduce the number of vulnerabilities that need to be fixed later on in the project. This training will also reduce how many errors in the code your team produces, which will provide you with a better end product as a result; better code will also reduce the need for patches or updates as technology advances.
Update And Patch Your Applications Regularly
When we think of updates and patches, it is typically for the purposes of improving functionality or giving users new tools they can use to improve their overall experiences. However, updates and patches are the ideal time to enhance the security of your applications. When performing updates and patches, you should also keep in mind the architecture of the application in order to avoid compatibility issues occurring, which could create gaps in your security and lead to vulnerabilities that are open to attacks.
Furthermore, you don't want your updates or patches to interfere with when people want to use the application, and the best time to begin an update or a patch would be during the out of hours times, such as overnight when it is less likely that users will want access to the application.
Encrypt Your Application Data
Encryption is a developer's best friend and has been implemented across many digital platforms in order to remove the risk of cyberattacks, including websites, which is why HTTP now shows as HTTPS. When securing your application, people want to trust that their data is safe with you, and encryption is the best way to provide that peace of mind. Ensure that you are protected against leaks, breaches, and attacks by using the latest tools to encrypt all of the data within your application.
Integrate Fuzz Testing
Fuzz testing is crucial for ensuring your application is secure and, in short, is the process of finding bugs in your software in order to find gaps in your security and coding errors. It has become a vital part of securing applications to ensure that the software is not vulnerable to hacking attacks. If you're interested in learning more about this process, head over to ForAllSecure and check out their helpful guide on software fuzzing.
Carry Out Penetration Testing
A final tip to improve your application's security is penetration testing, which involves performing mock attacks against your application in search of gaps in security that could later be exploited by malicious parties. Using penetration testing services from an experienced company will help you find vulnerable code before you release applications to the public, but it can also be carried out during maintenance checks on your existing applications to ensure they are still running as they should be.
Additionally, as technology evolves, cyberhacking becomes more sophisticated, and new vulnerabilities could occur in your code due to the changes in the digital world. Keeping ahead of trends and how they could change the way your code works will help you prevent vulnerabilities in your applications before they can occur.