Most people assume that app security breaches take place after an app goes live. But in reality, many breaches begin much earlier. If you didn’t watch out for security gaps at every stage of app development, they can lead to serious data breaches. That’s why you should follow app security best practices from the moment you start writing code to the moment the app is running on a cloud infrastructure.
Nowadays, most if not all mobile and web apps handle sensitive information. They have payment details, health records, locations, and personal messages. At the same time, attackers are getting smarter every day. They don’t go for complex hacks anymore because all they need is a small vulnerability like a misconfigured API or outdated dependency. Unfortunately, even the smallest security gaps can lead to massive breaches, data leaks, legal trouble, and, sadly, user trust loss.
The good news? You can prevent all these risks with proper cyber security awareness and following the right app security best practices from day one. That’s why this article is all about highlighting the possible security gaps across the app lifecycle and how to fix them from code to cloud.
Key Stages Where Security Gaps Happen
It’s important to fix and identify security gaps at every stage of the app life cycle, not just at the end. So here are some of the possible security gaps that you might face while building an app.
1. Code Stage
At this stage, developers write the actual code that makes the app work. So how can security breaches take place at this early stage?
Let’s say a developer made a small mistake while writing the code without realizing it or even used third-party libraries without checking their safety. Sadly, this can lead to insecure code. Moreover, if a developer didn’t properly check or clean the user input, attackers can steal data or take control of your app easily using SQL injection or cross-site scripting (XSS).
How Can You Avoid Those Security Gaps?
To avoid security gaps in the code, developers can use tools that automatically check their code as they write it. In other words, they have to perform a static code scanning. Tools like SonarQube or Snyk help catch potential security issues early, before the app even reaches the testing or launch stage.
Most importantly, developers should take secure developer training to understand common security risks and how to avoid them. That way, they can avoid risky vulnerabilities from the beginning.
2. Build and Integration Stage
After developers finish writing the code, they push it into a shared environment to build and test the app. This step is called CI/CD, which stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment. So what are the possible security risks that can happen at this stage?
When developers finish coding and start moving to the building stage, they might accidentally leak sensitive information like passwords and API keys into the codebase. If this code was published by mistake to public or shared environments like GitHub or cloud storage, hackers could easily steal that information within minutes.
Another risk is that CI/CD pipelines often have admin-level permissions to access servers, databases, and production environments. However, if these pipelines are not protected properly, attackers can abuse that and take full control of your app and data.
How Can You Avoid Those Security Gaps?
To make sure codes don’t contain any sensitive information, you should automatically scan codes for secrets. But how? You can use tools like GitGuardian or TruffleHog to check if passwords or private keys are accidentally included within your code. The good thing about these tools is that they alert you before you launch your app. You also want to make sure that only the right team members can access your CI/CD pipelines. You can even add role-based permissions, enable activity logging and set up alerts to monitor all activities.
3. Deployment Stage
This is the stage where your app is launched to cloud servers like AWS, Azure, or GCP and made public to users. I can’t deny that hosting your app on cloud servers does make your app faster and more scalable. However, if you weren’t so careful with your app configuration, you might face serious security risks.
One major security risk is misconfigured servers. If your cloud settings aren’t set properly, parts of our app, like the database, for example, could be left public accidentally. Can you even imagine how serious this situation could get if sensitive user data was exposed to anyone on the internet without even requiring a password? In order to fix that, you can use cloud security and auditing tools. Platforms like AWS and GCP already offer tools like AWS Inspector or Google Cloud Security Command Center. These tools can help you scan your cloud setup for weak points, open ports or outdated settings. That way you can spot any security vulnerabilities early.
Final Thoughts on App Security Best Practices
Let’s be real, building an app is already challenging enough. The last thing you want is to leave security gaps that could put your users, data, and business at risk. And as you’ve seen, security isn’t something you do after launch; it has to start from day one.
Paying attention to each stage, from code to build to deployment and investing in the right tools and training will not only reduce risk, it can also save you and your team from future headaches. More importantly, your users will trust you more.
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