Application security basics

Application security is the process of building, adding and testing security features within an application to prevent vulnerabilities — unauthorised access and modification chief among them. It matters more as applications spread across networks and into the cloud, since each new connection point is a new opportunity for something to go wrong.

Cyber security is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.

The main features are authentication, authorisation, encryption, logging and dedicated security testing — and developers can reduce a meaningful share of vulnerabilities just by how they write the code in the first place, before any of those features are added on top.

Mobile applications carry extra exposure, since they transmit over the open internet rather than a private network — a VPN adds a layer of protection for anyone logging into applications remotely. Either way, application security testing belongs in the development process itself, not as a step tacked on afterward, and a security audit against a defined set of criteria is what confirms it actually worked.