Web Application Security – Everything You Should Know

Introduction

Web applications have spread to almost all industries in the past few years, making business operations easier. After banking and finance to e-commerce, consequently, all industries actively seek web application development services for their said benefits.  However, many of these web applications become bait for cybercriminals. There are many examples where cybercrimes have turned down companies. Unsecured and irresponsibly coded applications continue to threaten data security.   We are sure you don’t want this to happen to your business applications. But is there something you can do?  Of course. Find services that are also concerned about web application security. Having a feature-rich web app would be vain if it’s unsecured. Therefore, we have some important details about making secure apps and websites and our approach to creating secure web apps.  

What is Web Application Security Testing

Web app security testing is a process to assess web applications for various security flaws, loopholes, and vulnerabilities. It is essential to prevent cyber attacks, data breaches, and malware. Threats are ever existing. But careful security testing highlights all hidden vulnerable points that may be on the verge of exploitation by hackers.  

Importance of Web App Security Testing

Digital transformation has offered innumerable benefits to different industries. However, like the second face of the coin, there are some troubles too. Cyber threats and hackers are a few problems that you should be protecting your business applications from.  While web app development solutions continuously raise security standards, hackers come up with new, sophisticated techniques to break through them. Therefore, it’s crucial to conduct regular security testing to stay above the vulnerabilities that can be used against your app.  For a long time, cybersecurity was put in the backseat as developers were least concerned about the impact of this negligence. Only when companies started losing millions and news headlines were filled with security breaches has this changed.  Cyber attacks are scarier than they seem. Mentioned below are some benefits of paying attention to web app development security.  

1. Identify Vulnerabilities and Flaws in Web Apps

One of the most important benefits of security testing is that it unveils all vulnerabilities and flaws that can cause trouble. For every web application development company, security testing is a crucial step of the development life cycle. As a result, developers are mindful of how security tests can make applications more reliable and follow the same at different stages.  

2. Comply with Security Regulations

As a result of increasing cyber-attacks and data breaches, several security standards and laws were set for specific industries and their web applications. In order to protect the users’ interests, web app security testing is made mandatory for almost all industries. It’s especially applicable to sensitive sectors like e-commerce, banking, and finance.   To comply with current regulations, it’s necessary that companies conduct regular security testing for their applications. Not only for businesses but for developers who release apps for public use on various distributor platforms, web app security tests are crucial. 

3. Analyze and Improve Current Security

Web security check helps in detecting any loopholes in your system and ensure adherence to current security measures. Even the firewall that is meant to protect your web app can have vulnerabilities. Regular security checks help in detecting these problems and rectifying the weaknesses before they take a toll on your business.  

4. Detect Any Abnormal Activities and Security 

Regular security audits help in detecting any hacker behavior or security breaches going on with the application. In fact, according to IBM, it takes an average of 196 days for a company to recognize a security breach within their system.  That’s a long time. The damage may become irreversible by then. Instead, periodic security tests can sniff out possible hacks and breaches before it brings any adverse consequences to your business. 

5. Formulate a Security Plan 

Using the details of a security audit, companies can prepare an effective security plan and prioritize responses against a hack or breach. It will also help in planning out incident responses according to your app or business.  Moreover, you will anyway require guidance from experts. 

Steps to Perform Manual Web App Security Testing 

Although you may not be able to make it without professional help, a little information never hurts. Here are the steps that we follow as a web application development company to manually test web apps. 

1) Asset Discovery 

It involves identifying the security areas of your application and other complementary assets that would be included in the testing. 

2) Look for Outdated Versions 

Verify if your application and other assets are up-to-date. 

3) Check for Various Permissions 

Check whether your application follows secure rules for various user roles and permissions. 

4) Check for Security Protocols 

It involves a check on various security protocols, including firewall, SSL, malware scanner, etc. After all, everything should be in place.  

5) Penetration Test to Analyze Code Rigidity 

Next is to analyze your application’s code against common attacks like code injection, CVE, SQLi, etc. However, this step requires more experience. 

6) Database Security Check 

Test your application’s database security against various malicious SQL queries and fix the same. 

7) Run Configuration Tests 

Determine security by checking the configuration structure of your application as well as the network. 

8) Check Network Assets 

It involves testing your routers, servers, desktops, printers, and switches against various known and specially designed CVEs and attacks.  

9) Business Logic 

Check your application and identify any vulnerabilities with regard to its design and implementation. 

10) Client-side Logic 

Check whether the JavaScript loading on browser web pages is done correctly, as per the rules. 

11) Input Validation 

For web applications that accept user data, it is critical to check that input validation stays in place. 

12) Authentication and Session Management 

Keep a check on authentication rules and make sure that there are no vulnerabilities in session management. 

13) Configurations 

Check your web application for any missing or misplaced configurations. 

14) Check for Authorization 

Check if your web application has given or allowed any unauthorized access.  

Secure Web Application Development at Narola Infotech 

There will always be a few vulnerabilities with your undertakings. But it should not keep you from grabbing the lucrative opportunities that come through well-designed web apps. You just need to choose a web app development company wisely.  Although we can't help with the growing number of hackers, we make sure that your web applications remain intact. At Narola Infotech, our proficient web app developers are keen on details and security regulations. We understand that business applications are a huge investment and put a lot at stake. Therefore the web applications we deliver are curated with prevailing security standards in mind.  We hope this blog helps you know how web application security is important and what are some of its best practices. Moreover, you can contact us any time for more details on related services.