The information age has led institutions to extend their activities and services to the digital environment. One of the best ways they have found to do this is through web applications. These types of tools have become one of the favorite attack vectors of cybercriminals.
For that reason, web application security has become one of the hottest topics for security professionals and businesses around the world.
If what you are looking for is to effectively protect the sensitive data of your clients and your organization, read these 5 web application security best practices.
Use penetration tests
One of the most sophisticated elements of any security assessment is the penetration test.. This is a near-real scenario simulation where a QA professional assumes the role of a hacker and attempts to compromise the system using any technique, from physical rape to programming.
Most vulnerabilities can be successfully found through penetration testing, which also produce a comprehensive report that can be used as the basis for a security check and a baseline to identify the weakness that led to a breach.
Multi-factor authentication (2FA)
Attackers will have little or no chance to log into an account when you have multi-factor authentication methods configured.
There's a reason multi-factor authentication has become standard practice among some of the largest companies in the IT industry.. Without this type of authentication, it is too simple to use a compromised account to gain access to private data.
Make sure your data is encrypted
It is essential to ensure that data is encrypted in transit between the visitor's browser and your server. We often refer to encrypted data as ciphertext and unencrypted data as plaintext.. Every time someone visits your web application, you can share sensitive information on your web portal that needs to be protected from spies.
This is where SSL/TLS encryption comes into play.. It consists of encrypting all the communications that occur between the visitors of your web portal and your web portal through the secure HTTPS protocol..
Encrypting this data in transit not only helps determine the trustworthiness of your website visitors, it also has SEO benefits. That's because Google loves websites with SSL.. Web application security works in your code and should be protected with the highest validation and strong encryption. To do it, it is required to have a EV Code Signing Certificates DigiCert EV Code Signing, Comodo's EV code signing certificate, etc.
Data backups
probably the “trick” simpler. The simple loss of significant amounts of data could bankrupt your company and make your regular business almost difficult.. One of the best strategies for web application security is to regularly back up your data. Make sure your backups are safe and up to date.
Your online application faces additional threats at the same time someone steals sensitive data. Truly, not all the most devastating events you may experience will be malicious.
Implement real-time security monitoring
Real-time data tracking is essential to ensure safety, as it gives security professionals the ability to monitor and manage access to organizational data. Although a security audit helps harden the core of your web application by helping to patch all the vulnerabilities, something else is required for continuous protection 24 hours of the day, the 7 weekdays.
A web application firewall (WAF) covers all aspects of real-time monitoring of your web application's security posture.
Regardless, there may be situations where WAFs end up showing false positives and missing signs of compromised security.
The use of a WAF can be a good starting point for companies. According to your needs, eventually more complex tools can be introduced later.
Summary
Since global cyber threats are not planning to go away any time soon, it is important to protect your web portal from possible dangers. Fortunately, there are many simple but effective security practices you can implement to increase the overall security of your site.
This post proves that you don't need a big budget or advanced technical knowledge to do some security best practices.. The question is, are you up for the challenge?
