Unfortunately, one of the most-neglected parts of web development is web app security. This can cause a bunch of problems when it comes to the personal data and information of both yourself and your visitors. Forgery, DDoS attacks, and viruses can corrupt and steal user information, payment methods, and more.
Web App Security Best Practices
Today, we’re going to be spending a few minutes going over some of the web app security best practices that you can do to keep up with your web application. It’s impossible to 100% secure, but implementing these practices can greatly increase your ability to keep data safe.
Preventing Cross-Site Forgery
Cross-Site Request Forgery is an attack that forces users to commit actions that they don’t want to. They may unwillingly transmit data from their device or network to the attacker. Hackers can target the HTTP protocol within your web app and use it to steal things such as credit card data, user info, or worse.
Prevent Cross-Site Scripting With Javascript
If a hacker can find a way to access your client-server side, then they can change and re-write the existing Javascript code. This means that they can slowly break down all of your existing security and the structure of your web application from the inside-out. They can even implement malicious methods that target future visitors of your site. You can prevent this by implementing a line of code in your Javascript that prevents random writers from being able to permanently change your code.
Protecting a DDoS Attack
A DDoS attack involves repeatedly sending requests at your main server in an effort to shut it down and prevent it from providing resources for visitors. While these are impossible to fully prevent, you can greatly decrease the likelihood of success by keeping your server software up to date, and by installing a traffic analysis system on your server.
Use Cookies Responsibly
Make sure that you never use cookies to store sensitive data, such as passwords or payment information. Cookies are relatively easy to hack into, so make sure that they include the bare minimum of information that you need to keep track of.
You should also set up an expiration date for cookies so that they aren’t sitting there for months or years at a time. Each cookie presents a small security risk, so the shorter amount of time that you can keep them on a users computer, the better.
Provide Safer Connections
Make use of HTTPS instead of HTTP. This prevents hackers from gaining unauthorized access during requests.
Place a Firewall on Your Servers
Your servers hold all of the useful data that your web app relies on. One of the best web app security practices that you implement is to put a strong firewall on your server. This will prevent hackers from directly penetrating your primary server and corrupting files or stealing valuable information.
Final Thoughts
While you’re in the middle of writing your new web app, it’s often easy to forget the small things that you can do to prevent future disaster. By taking a few minutes to pay attention to the details and implement these security practices you’ll be safeguarding both yourself and others.
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