Data breaches and cyberattacks make headlines daily, the security of your app is not just a priority—it’s a necessity. But how do you ensure that your app is secure from the ground up, especially during the critical development phase? The answer lies in adopting and implementing best practices that safeguard your code, your users, and your reputation.
To uncover the most effective strategies, we reached out to seasoned tech experts who live and breathe cybersecurity. We asked them a crucial question: What are the best practices for ensuring app security during development? The responses we gathered are packed with actionable insights from professionals who know the stakes, including a managing director and a cybersecurity consultant. From enforcing strict access controls and combating phishing attempts to embedding a security-first mindset throughout your development process, these are the top recommendations that will help you build apps with robust security at their core.
- Limit Access and Prevent Phishing
- Adopt a Multi-Layered Security Approach
- Establish a Secure Development Life Cycle
- Integrate Security in CI/CD Pipeline
- Conduct Regular Vulnerability Assessments
- Use Enterprise-Oriented Application Runtimes
- Perform Code Reviews and Dynamic Testing
- Embed Security in Every Development Stage
- Use Confusing Code Names for Projects
- Adopt a Security-First Mindset
Limit Access and Prevent Phishing
Limit access. Anyone who does not absolutely need access does not get it. In addition, everyone needs to keep phishing in the front of their mind. Most breaches are a result of social engineering, so every developer, every employee, needs to be reminded of security policies and what to look for in phishing communications. Anything out of the ordinary should be shared with the security team. You might be developing the next billion-dollar app. Don’t let someone breach your network and put out a bootleg version before your perfected version is released.
Bill Mann, Privacy Expert, Cyber Insider
Adopt a Multi-Layered Security Approach
As tech experts developing apps for our clients, we ensure security through a comprehensive, multi-layered approach. First, we integrate security into the development lifecycle from the outset by following secure coding practices and conducting regular code reviews to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities early. We employ static and dynamic application security testing (SAST and DAST) tools to continuously scan for security issues throughout development.
Additionally, we implement robust authentication and authorization mechanisms to ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive data and functionalities. Encryption is used extensively to protect data both in transit and at rest, ensuring that even if data is intercepted, it remains unreadable to unauthorized parties.
We also perform regular security audits and penetration testing to simulate potential attack scenarios and uncover any weaknesses in the application. These tests help us address security gaps before they can be exploited in a live environment.
Finally, we provide thorough documentation and training for our clients to ensure they understand the security measures in place and how to maintain them. By integrating these comprehensive security practices, we ensure that the apps we develop for our clients are robust, secure, and resilient against potential threats.
Sergiy Fitsak, Managing Director, Fintech Expert, Softjourn
Establish a Secure Development Life Cycle
It’s important to take a holistic view when it comes to secure application development. To ensure complete coverage across all security risks, I would recommend establishing what is known as a secure software development life cycle (SSDLC). SSDLC is just a formal way of describing the process of identifying, designing, and implementing appropriate security controls through each phase of application development—from the secure design through to coding, build, integration, testing, and into deployment.
Typical activities established by an SSDLC might be:
- Secure Design Phase – Performing threat modeling.
- Secure Coding Phase – Static security testing.
- Secure Build Phase – Dynamic security testing, fuzzing, and container scanning.
- Secure Deployment Phase – Network vulnerability scans and code signing.
Establishing an SSDLC will importantly help you to “shift left” the security controls in your application development processes. This means integrating security controls early on in the development process rather than waiting until the end when the application has been developed and code committed.
This typically results in three key benefits:
- Early Detection – Security vulnerabilities are identified early, making them quicker and cheaper to fix.
- Code Quality – The overall quality of the code improves because security is a priority even before developers start writing code.
- Efficiency – Developers inevitably spend less time fixing security issues after the fact, speeding up the development process and speed to market.
Establishing a complete SSDLC can, however, take weeks or months and often requires an external expert to help establish new controls and processes. If you need just one thing quickly, on a budget, and effective immediately, I’d recommend a SAST (static application security testing) tool.
There are some strong free options like SonarQube and CodeQL (now a native part of GitHub). They scan an application’s source code or binary to identify the root causes of vulnerabilities in the code and help to remediate the underlying security flaws. They integrate into developers’ pipelines so they can scan and remediate vulnerabilities “on the fly,” which is really useful for agile product and development teams trying to get applications out the door quickly.
Jonny Pelter, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Founder, CyPro
Integrate Security in CI/CD Pipeline
To ensure app security during development, I implement a multi-layered approach.
First, I use secure coding practices and conduct regular code reviews. Then, I employ automated security-testing tools to catch vulnerabilities early.
Additionally, I integrate security checks into our CI/CD pipeline. Finally, I conduct thorough penetration testing before release.
This comprehensive strategy helps maintain robust security throughout the development process.
Hodahel Moinzadeh, Founder & Senior Systems Administrator, SecureCPU Managed IT Services
Conduct Regular Vulnerability Assessments
To prevent security breaches, teams must address problems before they escalate. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to conduct vulnerability assessments on a regular basis, check code for mistakes, and adhere to best coding practices. Additionally, make sure to implement data-backup solutions, which serve as a safety net and prevent losing essential data in an emergency. It is also critical to keep these backups up-to-date for uninterrupted operations and company sustainability.
Alex Tray, Cybersecurity Consultant, NAKIVO
Use Enterprise-Oriented Application Runtimes
Web applications are typically viewed by hackers as an easy target for cyberattacks since they can take advantage of a number of vulnerabilities. For example, when looking at application runtimes, a number of production systems often rely on legacy solutions or open-source technologies that lack commercial support for mission-critical business applications and production environments. Companies should rely on an up-to-date, enterprise-oriented application runtime. The ideal solution should offer a variety of tools that support advanced encryption, authentication, authorization, verification, segmentation, and compartmentalization.
In addition, it should quickly deliver security reports with critical security vulnerabilities as Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) to users and public security databases, as well as making the relevant public disclosures. These activities help to swiftly identify and address exploits.
By establishing a solid relationship with an application server provider and its support team, organizations can better protect their systems, data, and users against the evolving threat landscape. Even more, such a partnership can help streamline the application server migration process, slashing the associated time, cost, and resources while ensuring performance and effectiveness of the software applications.
When looking for a suitable vendor, it is important to favor a provider with a strong security policy that releases frequent security fixes and upgrades. For example, the Payara Platform benefits from monthly releases. In addition, partnering with a specialist that adheres to key standards and specifications while contributing to cyber resilience technical working groups and task forces is highly beneficial.
Finally, protecting systems and businesses through a comprehensive service-level agreement (SLA) is key to minimizing downtime and its associated costs. This agreement not only outlines the responsibilities and expectations for both parties but also includes provisions for regular maintenance, incident management, and penalties for non-compliance.
By establishing these guidelines, healthcare organizations can ensure continuous operation, mitigate risks, and protect patients’ safety. The engineering team behind the Payara Platform closely monitors incidents of cyberattacks globally, particularly focusing on how to protect the mission-critical application infrastructure to support end users with a robust solution.
Luqman Saeed, Jakarta EE Specialist, Payara Services Ltd
Perform Code Reviews and Dynamic Testing
We conduct regular code reviews and use static-code-analysis tools to catch vulnerabilities early in the development process. These tools automatically scan the code for security flaws, helping us maintain a high standard of code quality. Additionally, we follow best practices in secure coding, such as input validation, secure authentication, and proper error handling, to minimize the risk of common vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).
To further strengthen security, we perform dynamic testing in a controlled environment. This includes penetration testing to simulate attacks and identify any weaknesses that could be exploited by malicious actors. By recognizing these vulnerabilities, we can address them before the app goes live.
Nikita Baksheev, Manager, Marketing, Ronas IT
Embed Security in Every Development Stage
Ensuring the security of apps during development involves a comprehensive, integrated approach that embeds security measures at every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). We start by adhering to secure coding practices to prevent common vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting. This is supported by regular code reviews and pair programming to maintain high coding standards.
We also manage and secure our software dependencies to ensure they are up-to-date and free from known vulnerabilities, using automated tools for efficiency. Security testing is critical, encompassing both static application security testing (SAST) and dynamic application security testing (DAST) to detect vulnerabilities in both the code and the running applications.
Penetration testing is conducted regularly to simulate real-world attacks and identify potential breaches before they occur. Additionally, we secure our development, testing, and production environments by implementing strict access controls and maintaining secure configurations.
After deployment, continuous monitoring of the applications is crucial. We use security information and event management (SIEM) systems to detect and respond to unusual activity that might indicate a security breach.
By integrating these practices throughout the development process, we ensure that security is not just an afterthought but a fundamental aspect of our app development, enhancing the overall security posture from design to deployment.
Ari Lew, CEO, Asymm
Use Confusing Code Names for Projects
My favorite security measure is giving projects code names while in development. You don’t call Tinder “Tinder”; you call it “Project T” or something. But have fun with the names, and try to find ones that are as confusing as possible for someone who’s not in the know.
Sead Fadilpašić, Cybersecurity Writer, Restore Privacy
Adopt a Security-First Mindset
In my experience as a tech expert, ensuring app security starts with a “security-first” mindset from day one. This means integrating security protocols at every stage of development. For instance, we implement automated security testing in our CI/CD pipeline, which catches issues early and educates our developers on common pitfalls. Coupled with regular code reviews and penetration testing, this approach significantly mitigates risks before reaching production.
One memorable project benefited greatly from this strategy, highlighting the importance of early detection. Additionally, staying updated with the latest security trends and using tools like static code analyzers ensures resilience against new threats. Ultimately, it’s about creating a culture where everyone on the team takes security seriously.
Máté Kovács, Founder, Teleprompter.com
