Modern business infrastructure is dependent on the internet, or we can say there has to be the online visibility of the same.
However, being on the internet, some of the information is constantly exposed to third parties or hackers.
To protect your website from such threats, web app security is introduced.
Web application security means protecting the website against the threats that are in the habit of exploiting the vulnerabilities in any application code.
Organizations that fail in securing their web applications have higher chances of being attacked.
Let us discuss some of the fundamental questions related to web application security.
The Modern business being run online is prone to many attacks.
In order to prevent the business from such attack web app security is to be implemented.
Other benefits in opting for web app security are:
- Preventing the loss of important and sensitive data.
- Security threats are minimized at the time of testing.
- Cost-saving as loss of any data or any attack will cost the reputation of the company and may also bring in financial losses.
Also Read: Top 10 Security Threats to E-Commerce to Look for in 2021
Some of the best practices for efficient web application security are discussed as under:
Complete involvement of everyone is needed when it comes to the security point.
Majority of the time it is still believed that the security is only for the specialized team.
But nowadays with modern methods being included in the business it is more of a teamwork now.
Taking an example of current best practice SecDevOps, wherein the security is the common area of interest of both security team, developing team and operating team.
Everyone needs to be included in the list when it comes to providing the best security to web applications.
Doing a proper inventory check will keep you updated about the current network architecture.
Many times during inventory check some applications are noticed that are rouge and might cause an issue later.
Through inventory check organizations will be able to detect such issues at an early stage.
Prioritizing applications save users a lot of time in deciding where to invest resources first.
After an organization has done its inventory check, the next step is with prioritizing the applications.
Organizations can divide the applications into three categories:
Critical applications: This includes the applications containing information related to customers.
These applications have a higher probability of being attacked as a lot of sensitive information’s are present into them.
Serious applications: These applications can either be internal or external and might have less but some information.
Normal application: Such applications are less likely to be attacked but are needed to be included in tests.
Web application firewall more likely acts as a filter between server and client.
Firewalls assist users by analyzing all incoming traffic and will stop any of the activities that they may find suspicious.
Implement encryption techniques to every data that you are receiving or sending.
Move forward from traditional methods of opting for HTTPS or HSTS encryptions and start implementing SSL encryptions too.
Putting the application through testing procedure will provide you inputs on loopholes in applications.
Penetration testing can be of great help here, wherein the teams will try to infiltrate the application by hacking it.
Penetration testing method will be helpful in such scenarios as it allows you to find vulnerabilities and will present you the results in documented formats.
Testing of the applications should be done with respect to both local as well as remote computers.
It is advised that the least permissible setting should be used and should be approved only by senior authorities.
For majority of the applications system administrator access are needed.
It is always better to use fewer resources and find faults in that much of permissible action only.
Every web application has specific privileges and they should be adjusted according to security.
Cookies are used to be remembered by the sites, user more often visits.
However, the settings of cookies should be adjusted in order to minimize the risks.
User should never use cookies for storing user name or passwords of web applications.
Cookies can present a risk too if their expiration settings are not adjusted.
Users can also use other web suggestions like redirecting from HTTP to HTTPS, enabling public key pins, using strong passwords, using an updated versions of using TLS, etc.
It might happen in a company that only a few are aware about the importance of security of web applications and its effects.
The training shouldn’t be only given to a particular set of specialized group omit, rather should be expanded to every team working in the organization.
Providing training to maximum people will assist in receiving inputs on any type of vulnerabilities.
Although a company might be loaded up with security persons it might not be easy for them too to find every security risk.
Implementing a reward program will assist the organization by providing more resources and dedicated people to find vulnerabilities or security risks in your applications.
Conclusion
Maintaining web application security is more of a team effort. There might be some immediate steps too to tackle any vulnerability in an application. However, with the growth of the business the network requirements change too. Above mentioned steps will assist users in the long run for maintaining the security over web applications.
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