When starting a new application development project, security must be top of mind, especially with the growing number of security threats, such as cyberattacks, data breaches, and more.
This post will walk you through what application security means, why it matters, and the different strategies to ensure secure application development in an organization.
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Application security is the process of making different types of applications secure by identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities in your application’s code. It’s meant to protect your application from malicious attacks using various techniques and security testing tools.
Nowadays, almost every business has a web or mobile application which powers nearly everything they do. So, keeping them secure is a must. Here’s why companies should invest in securing application development:
In addition, application security prevents data breaches. In 2020, there were 3,950 confirmed cases of data breaches.
But, what is a data breach?
A data breach is an incident where an unauthorized person steals confidential and sensitive information of an organization. For example, employees checking the documents they were not supposed to, severe malware attacks that expose tons of personal records, etc.
These breaches can either happen by accident or when someone intentionally attacks to get confidential information for the wrong purposes. Plus, it’s becoming more common worldwide due to the rise in digital data, remote working, and cloud computing.
Now that you’re aware of what application security is and its benefits in building a secured application let’s get into four powerful strategies to secure your next application development process.
First and foremost, you need to create security requirements for your application. App requirements are goals set out for an app of what it should be or how it should perform. In other words, it is the foundation on which the quality of the application depends.
For example, an application might allow customers to sign-up without any one-time password (OTP). Or, it can enable them to solve queries without calling customer representatives.
Just as you define these goals for the final app, you must also include the security requirements.
Having clear, consistent, and measurable app security requirements are crucial for deploying secure applications effectively. Developers and designers can’t meet app security goals unless they are specific and achievable.
Before building such requirements, ask yourself:
The current level of security is insufficient to secure applications as developers aren’t aware of the threats lurking, waiting for the hackers to exploit them. This is where security-focused frameworks come into play.
Security frameworks guide all developers to create secure applications from the start. It is a go-to document that clearly defines the policies, procedures, and processes regarding cybersecurity practices. Further, it explains how information, services, and systems are managed within your company to prevent hackers.
In a nutshell, security frameworks aim to reduce risk levels and applications’ exposure to vulnerabilities. So, it’s crucial to remain up-to-date on your framework. This, in turn, makes the clients, stakeholders, prospects, customers, and business partners feel confident about your application.
The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is an international non-profit organization that focuses on improving the security of applications by making the materials (such as documentation, tools, and forums) readily available on their website to app developers.
The Security Knowledge Framework (SKF) is the part of OWASP that helps you build more apps by:
DevOps is an integral approach in application development. It provides the tools, resources, and practices that allow organizations to reduce the time required for creating apps.
However, it’s not enough for today’s software companies to implement faster and innovative app development techniques. They need an approach that also considers cybersecurity to keep their apps safe from hackers.
DevOps doesn’t take security into account. This is why the concept of DevSecOps was introduced.
DevSecOps is an app development approach that integrates security (Sec) into DevOps. It emphasizes the importance of security at each app development stage and implements continuous and automated security components at the earliest.
In addition to improved app security, DevSecOps helps your company achieve the following benefits:
Here’s how you can integrate security into DevOps successfully:
So, choose a system with different change control tactics, identity verification mechanisms, metadata collection for code versions, and digital signatures for application development and client communications.
Application security testing is an effective way to reduce the cyberattacks on applications and protect them from damage. In other words, it checks whether the application is vulnerable to cyberattacks and evaluates the risk and threats that will negatively impact the business.
Application security testing tools provide such testing services throughout the deployment cycle. Mainly, there are three types of security testing tools:
Undoubtedly, application security is becoming a massive concern for developers with the increasing security threats and malicious cyberattacks. But we’re sure these four best practices can reduce your worries and help you build a secure business application.