Securing Your Software: Best Practices for Application Security

Cyber threats are on the rise by the day. More people are going into hacking and are using even more advanced skills and technologies to execute. This calls for a review of your software to make sure these threats don’t reach you.

There are certain security practices you need to put in place to ensure your app's safety. The first and major one is understanding the threat landscape. If you have this knowledge, you can go about all other steps in the right direction.

If you want to learn more, stick with me. Let us have this smooth ride together!

1.     Understand the landscape of threats your app is open to

Different software is open to different kinds of threats. The threat of an e-commerce app is different from that of a financial institution. So, knowing the kind of threats you are open to can guide you to correctly protect the app.

Injection attacks like SQL injection, command injection, and a few others focused on allowing unauthorized access to the app. Also, they can compromise your database. Cross-Site Request Forgery tricks users into taking certain actions on a site without authorization.

Then there’s Cross-Site Scripting, which adds malicious things to web pages, steals users’ data, or hijacks their sessions. Distributed Denial of Service launches attacks on servers to cause downtime and usage disruption. There are even many other threats you need to undergo.

2.     Employ practices of security coding

This is better implemented during the development phase. It helps to reduce the vulnerability of the software when it launches into the market. Some of the major practices to put in place here are Authentication and Authorization, Input Validation, Error Handling, and Secure Session Management.

3.     Integrate security into your DevOps

This makes sure you consider the security of the app after developing every stage. Here, you need to engage in automated security checks, secure your infrastructure by treating it as a code, and learn more about updated security threats.

4.     Secure third-party components and dependencies

Some applications work with third-party components for some of their functionalities. Some of these third parties have risks since they are linked to your app, you can share in it. To prevent this, get trusted sources, always make sure dependencies are up to date, reduce the need for external libraries, and a few other practices.

5.     Encrypt data

Encryption data is one best security practice for applications. It helps keep data safe when they are in the app and even when they are in transit. One of the best things to put in place for this practice is encrypting data at rest, which protects data in the file system, database, file system, and backup files. There is encryption in transit; you can use TSL/SSL to guard data through any server.

Also, you can add key management practices for further safety. This includes access controls, rotation of regular keys, secure key storage, and more.

6. Regular security testing, audits, and compliance

You have to test the security of the platform regularly to make sure you spot the vulnerabilities in the software and get rid of them. You can carry out dynamic application security testing, penetration testing, statistical application security testing, and continuous monitoring.

Also, make sure that your app complies with regulations such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, and more. Keep the software in check constantly to make sure it doesn’t slack.

Making sure your software is secure doesn’t only help users, it helps you as well. If your app is not secure users would prefer secure ones to it, reducing your users. These practices will make you don’t have to worry about your app security.

At Neoverce, we help creators and innovators like you find the best solutions as you go on your software security journey. If you need some help with your project you can book a brief no-obligation call with us here. 

Keep innovating, keep building.