Introduction
Today, we can observe the elaboration of numerous applications. Aside from ordinary users, almost every company presented on the Internet possesses web applications. Applications are everywhere and they are constantly utilized in every workplace. For example, one can enumerate approximately 2 million apps on the Google Play store and nearly 1.83 million apps on the Apple App store.
This is connected with the increasing popularity of the acceptance of digital technologies. However, this also brought problems in the defense of financial and personal data against possible hackers during developing software engineering solutions. Implementation of advanced web application security best practices during app elaboration can prevent you from facing cybercriminals and guarantee that apps stick to security standards and that vulnerabilities are absent.
Web Apps are at Risk of Cyber Attacks
To begin with, web app elaboration requires much time and effort. It includes lots of stages which developers should perform obligatorily. You are lucky since if you go on the official website, you will be able to hire a team of experts who will conduct the entire work on app elaboration instead of you.
Nowadays, web applications possess both good and bad sides. Everybody has already guessed about apps’ good. Web applications simplify users’ lives and they provide us with the possibility to do almost everything we want in various spheres from education, sport, and business to entertainment. Apps bring convenience to our everyday lives. A user is able to close doors while far away from home. Or a user can plan a route to get away from traffic jams before he/she starts driving. The benefits of apps are endless.
The bad side of web apps is that they are subject to constant cyber-attacks. Hackers are aware that apps are elaborated by a software engineering service. Also, cyber attackers understand that software can be far away from ideal. Moreover, threat actors realize that not all companies put safe app elaboration as a priority. Cyber attackers know that not every company or user will install issued patches for vulnerabilities and bugs.
Thus, as it is understandable, web applications are considered favorite victims of cyber attackers who intend to get inside users’ devices and the company’s systems. Fortunately, there are ways to decrease this bad of apps. These ways include best practices for safe app elaboration.
Web App Security Best Practices
During financial apps development, special attention should be paid to security. Otherwise, unsafe apps put companies at risk in numerous ways from legal to financial. There is no need to mention that your brand can get damaged.
There is a long distance between “should know” and “do know”. Moreover, those developers who do know still do not start acting. Thus, taking into account that the modern online world is full of app vulnerabilities it has the meaning to pay additional focus and attention to application security.
Professional software engineer services are aware that secure app elaboration is well proven. Every security conference illuminates the importance of safe app development and provides ways to do it properly and in a better way. Thus, let’s look at best practices for safe app elaboration in detail.
Design Phase
It is recommended to take the security of your work into consideration in the very beginning – during the design phase. Fixing bugs in this phase can assist you to save expenses and effort. Also, it helps you to reduce the time product launches on the market. If the finance app development team is familiar with the concept of secure design, it can utilize the threat modeling process with the assistance of a career security team. Such a team is able to estimate whether the design of your product is compliant and safe.
During this process, elaboration and threat modeling teams together with security architects conduct a series of discussions. The threat modeling team puts a number of questions to comprehend if the design team took all the risks into account. For instance, did the design team implement encryption for confidential data both at rest and in motion? Did they demand reliable passwords? Did they realize several levels of user privileges? Is the app conducting input validation? Executing threat modeling assists in efficient design and averts the necessity for redesigns at subsequent stages.
Development Phase
It is advisable for elaborators who are working on financial app development to be trained on the Open Web Application Security Project’s OWASP Top 10. This will assist them to be familiar with problems that should be averted during coding. It would be better to always utilize secure frameworks instead of writing your own code. Developers need to likewise ensure they utilize the latest versions of libraries and third-party codes. Also, do not forget to always verify openings in third-party and open-source software. Before you add them to the code, remember to fix them.
Encryption
One of the most significant facets of protecting the work of software engineer services is encryption. Developers should ensure it is in place for data in transit and at rest, taking particular caution when data involves confidential information. It is recommended to always utilize HTTPS and prohibit access over HTTP. Also, it is significant to utilize reputed encryption techniques rather than attempting to realize your own. Aside from encryption, you can verify that data and make sure it is safe utilizing hashing techniques.
While utilizing encryption, developers need to shun prominent weak algorithms, ciphers, or versions. Even during keeping confidential data in log files, this data should be encrypted.
Check Passwords and Logins
It is advisable to ensure that passwords are complicated that are selected by users. Ideally, the password should consist of a minimum of eight characters and include a combination of upper, lower, and special characters. Such passwords make it difficult to perform cyber attacks. To additionally make this step better, two-factor authentication can be utilized. Moreover, developers of a software engineering service need to realize an account lockout when the maximum number of password attempts is defined by a system.
Conclusion
Safety should be built into the life cycle of apps rather than added last. If developers and architects follow advanced safety best methods during the design and development phases, this will assist them to guarantee the protection of their apps from cyber attacks and defend the data of their customers.
Together with these methods and processes, one is able to attract an expert team to verify and certify the state of your work utilizing different testing methods. These advanced methods will be of high importance for defending new projects against hackers and developing a feeling of trust with your customers.