When you hire a construction team to build you a high rise, you expect them by default to ensure every precaution and safety while working and once the building becomes functional. You don’t want a caution tape on the front door telling people that the structural integrity of the building is compromised and hence, deemed unusable.
Interestingly enough, software developers work in a much similar fashion. These tech experts are expected to carry out operations with the highest of coding standards to ensure there aren’t any loopholes or potentially vulnerable access points exposed for hackers to misuse. After all, the software has to be optimally functioning and not run down after a few practices runs.
Secure coding methods can be the make-or-break standards to govern best practices when it comes to cloud computing. These coding practices and decisions that the software developers make as they build software aim to ensure a hacker may never exploit the server for their advantage no matter how advanced their technique is.
Hence, there is no scarcity of secure coding standards that have been commonly made part of best practices when it comes to cloud computing and software development. From the OWASP Secure Coding Practices to the SEI CERT Coding Standards, these secure coding standards are built on a set of basic principles and methodologies.
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Here are our top 5 secure coding methods picks, have a look!
1. Simple & Secure Design Architecture
First and foremost, your top priority is developing a completely secure and safe code to use. Hence, security cannot be included as an afterthought feature but a high priority ingrained element of your design code and architecture. Therefore, you will be creating software architecture and design that implements and enforce security elements in place as it functions.
Many organizations on a bigger scale find themselves stuck with a choice of competing priorities. However, security optimization through coding shouldn’t even be a matter of choice as anything else as an objective can only be achieved if your security is implemented by design. Even in the long run, this approach will pay off through reduced future costs of debt and risk.
2. Password Management Throughout
Passwords are systematically considered as one of the most prominent features of any software to allow optimum security. However, quite a contradiction to this assumption, passwords are a weaker element of many software systems. The primary reason is multi-factor authentication features that have become so widespread and commonly used these days. However, regardless, passwords haven’t completely lost their identity.
They are still the most commonly used security credential and authorization best practices that potentially limit cyber risk. Users worldwide are pretty much caught up and used to putting passwords and following the general process of creating complex, adequate length, and can withstand any attacks. Despite all these favorable features, the coding program must manage passwords throughout the coding scheme.
3. Access & Control by Default
One commonly heard phrase among cloud computing and software development experts is “take the default to deny approach.” What this means quite literally is to incorporate the default deny feature, especially toward sensitive data. It allows the coders to limit access points right from the beginning by making the controlling elements a default part of the systematic run of the code.
This approach not only limits privilege but also restricts access and control over the data. Only the users who need it and have purposeful use are able to control it as only they have access to it. The default setup of this feature would automatically deny any user who fails to provide the already embedded authorization credentials. So requests for sensitive information are checked against the pre-determined data to check if the user is authorized or not.
4. Error Handling and Logging
After all, what is a code if it isn’t able to handle the most basic of functions like error handling and logging? The belief that a perfect code exists is false, and a potential error in handling information or logging in or out of the system is bound to happen with time. Codes are developed to advance and upgrade with time and technological advancement. So there is a chance that the synchronization may not work.
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However, software errors are more often than not indicative of bugs. Hence, any entry point that is vulnerable to grant access to bugs causing errors is pretty much vulnerable to any third-party source that may tend to exploit the software. Therefore, documenting all errors and systemic failures is to comply with coding.
5. System Sanitization & Configuration
You may be well aware that your code travels all throughout the system components but what you may not be aware of is that what it leaves behind. Therefore, it is an essential step in between to sanitize all data is passed through complex systems like command shells, relational databases, and COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) components, etc.
One of the major sources of such loopholes is when your software is outdated. That is why diligent servers tend to require upgrades in order to function rightfully to the best of their abilities. Security breaches are also the result of not maintaining your software and letting the configuration slip. Hence, software updates are vital for secure coding practices.
Summary of the Top 5 Secure Coding Methods
Through these best practices and secure coding methods, you ensure that your end result is free of errors and any potential vulnerabilities. Maintaining a standard routine f such procedures should help you reach the optimum security for safe coding.
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