{"id":14464,"date":"2019-10-22T11:24:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T11:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.finoit.com\/?p=14464"},"modified":"2024-04-03T13:06:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T13:06:35","slug":"top-15-application-security-best-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finoit.com\/blog\/top-15-application-security-best-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Planning an App? Have You Considered These 15 Application Security Best Practices?"},"content":{"rendered":"
The idea of mobile app security germinates in the code that makes the app. As David Wheeler\u2019s Secure Programming HOWTO explains, \u201ca good developer must be familiar with security principles and practices\u201d to characterize the code with confidentiality, integrity, and availability.<\/em><\/p>\n Mobile app usage is witnessing a sharp rise as technology advances and becomes a default element of business value chains. By 2025, mobile apps are projected to represent over 50% of all digital interactions. With this increased use comes an increased risk of cyber threats, so the importance of secure coding mobile apps cannot be overstated.<\/p>\n The past several years have seen many setbacks in application security. The future does not seem too bright for those who do not diligently follow application security best practices. According to a report by Accenture<\/a>, cybercrime is expected to cost businesses over $5.2 trillion worldwide by 2025.<\/p>\n These figures insist business leaders begin thinking about security early on by taking ownership. The steps would entail creating application security standards and policies under application vulnerability management, ensuring that they follow software development security best practices, and allocating a dedicated budget for app security.<\/p>\n In our app development journey, we have come across many companies or business owners who do not have the initial blueprint of the mobile application security best practices necessary for building secure, scalable apps.<\/p>\n To help companies better understand the app security requirements, we have developed a list of application security practices checklists from the perspective of business leaders, covering the vast threat landscape.<\/p>\n These techniques begin with understanding the mobile or web application security risks and further cover web and mobile app security best practices so that you can have more confidence in your application.<\/p>\n Let us first evaluate different types of application security risk touchpoints essential to address the practice of finding vulnerabilities and taking actionable measures.<\/p>\n At these touchpoints, your application security is at risk. You need to identify the software vulnerabilities at these touchpoints that attackers can leverage to their advantage.<\/p>\n The book, The Art of Software Security Assessment<\/a>-Identifying and Preventing Software Vulnerabilities defines \u201csoftware vulnerabilities as specific flaws or oversights in a piece of software that allow attackers\u201d to:<\/p>\n Creating a robust application security software strategy that effectively addresses vulnerabilities at all touchpoints is an important step. As a precursor, it secures the development cycle and helps combat app vulnerabilities on all the following three fronts:<\/p>\n Gartner’s report on the app security hype cycle urges IT managers to \u201cgo beyond identifying common application development security errors and protecting against common attack techniques.\u201d It suggests implementing standard application policy recommendations to discover vulnerabilities before hackers do.<\/p>\n To effectively combat application development security challenges, business leaders must thus focus their attention on these top 15 application security best practices. Implementing these practices would help them understand the threat landscape and make crucial decisions. Most of these practices are platform neutral and relevant to various app types. But before that, let\u2019s first understand secure coding principles.<\/p>\n Secure coding practices are a set of guidelines and techniques used by developers to build software that is secure and resistant to cyber-attacks. These practices help ensure that software applications are developed with security in mind from the outset rather than being added as an afterthought.<\/p>\n During the development process, secure coding practices serve as principles for avoiding security flaws and help prevent, identify, and eliminate mistakes that might jeopardize the security of mobile apps.<\/p>\n On the app security front, you must address two key concerns; first is application vulnerabilities, and second is access control. We delve into security coding practices and guide you through the process to fortify your coding framework.<\/p>\n According to IDG, a modern enterprise has more than 372 mission-critical applications.<\/p>\n A practical application security program is contingent upon many factors, such as an organization\u2019s ability to align skills, create traction to encourage IT and security teams to take proactive measures, and optimize their security program leveraging on app security best practices.<\/p>\n You cannot perform all these without knowing which component of your application infrastructure is most vulnerable. Tracking application infrastructure should be the first step to creating a robust app security program. And while doing so, treat every component of the application infrastructure as unknown and insecure.<\/p>\n Analyze the components from the security perspective to determine what each component will require to prevent non-application components from interacting with the data you send and receive.<\/p>\n In your analysis, cover all the software platforms from development to runtime enablers. This step would help you determine the necessary network access controls<\/a> to be implemented at the time of action so that only approved users and traffic sources can access application resources.<\/p>\n Now that you have a list of the application infrastructure components, the next step is to find the security vulnerability of each element.<\/p>\n Through the assessment, you can create a systematic approach to determine protocols for software security policy implementation when users or systems attempt to access any component of the software infrastructure.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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What are secure coding practices?<\/h2>\n
Top secure coding practices that bolster your application security<\/h2>\n
1. Track Your Application Infrastructure<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Perform Software Security Risks Assessment<\/h3>\n