TOP 10 PROACTIVE WEB APPLICATION SECURITY MEASURES 
                     TOP 10 PROACTIVE WEB APPLICATION SECURITY MEASURES
Web application security is one of the major elements in web development 
that often gets overlooked. Traditionally, a lot of concerns were hovering 
over network security or operating system security in IT. However, the focus 
changed to website applications in the modern era. Web application 
security is a dynamic field of cybersecurity and it is hard to keep track of 
changing technologies, security vulnerability and attack vectors. But a good 
Web Application Development Company always take care of these major 
points, as these points will play a very important role in the process of Web 
App Development. In The State of Application Security, 2020, Forrester says 
that the majority of external attacks occur either by exploiting software 
vulnerability (42%) or through a web application (35%). Although there is no 
way to guarantee a complete 100% security, there are certain measures that 
could be taken in order to spread one more layer of protection. Henceforth, 
Analytics Insight brings you a list of best practices that could provide web 
application security.
 
• Ten ways to ensure web application security
1. Create a web application security blueprint
Running a web application without a security plan is a dangerous thing. 
Even if your company’s website or application has never been under 
cybersecurity attack, it is always good to have a solution in the bag for such 
situations. Henceforth, have a plan or a blueprint on what you’ll do if the web 
application is hacked. Sit down with your IT security team to develop a 
detailed and actionable web application plan that outlines your 
organization’s goals. The blueprint should have specific details of individuals 
who protect the web application and which application should be secured 
first if the company is facing crisis. Have constant testings through manual, 
cloud solution, software that you have on-site, managed service providers or 
some other means. Each company’s security blueprint differs based on their 
infrastructure. However, Synopsys created a fairly detailed six-step web 
application security checklist you can refer to.
2. Track your Assets
An employee or the owner of a web application can’t be aware of every 
single detail in their organization. However, having a basic knowledge on 
which servers the organization use for specific functions or app is important. 
The software is considered as the asset of an organization. Keeping track of 
the software asset saves disaster that could come in the future. This process 
should be automated as much as possible for organization's to scale their 
development. In addition, take some time to track and classify the 
organizations asset. When a cyberattack takes place and demands some 
kind of sacrifice, you should be prioritized to give up on the least important 
application.
 3. Perform a threat assessment
Make a list on what needs protection in your web application. This will help 
you figure out what kind of security issues are menacing and what could be 
done as a proactive measure to conceal it. Frame answers to questions like 
‘What are the paths that hackers could use to breach your application? Do 
you have existing security measures in place to detect or prevent an attack? 
Are more or different tools needed?’ The answers will ensure security in a 
critical situation.
 4. Make security everyone’s priority
Organization's are totally taking technology in their hands to perform daily 
tasks. Henceforth, they can no longer afford to leave cybersecurity to just 
the security professionals, and this also applies to web application security. 
Just like how IT security policies and practices involve a wide cross-section 
of functions, the web application should also be integrated into all stages of 
the development, operations and testing process.
 5. Back-up website data
Backing up all website information is a mandatory process. Take constant 
back-ups of the web application. This can help in case of malware attacks or 
security breach as the organization will just need to restore the web app and 
access their previously stored data. But it is not applicable to all cases as 
some ransomware attacks demand money for not releasing the confidential 
data of customers.
 6. Introduce a bounty program
A great way to get feedback from the community regarding potential web 
application security issues is to introduce a bounty program. Even if you run 
a company with dedicated security professionals, they may not be able to 
identify all potential security risks. Therefore, to help encourage the 
community of security risks, offer a bounty and monetary value.
 7. Encrypt your data
Encryption is the basic process of encoding information to protect it from 
anyone who is not authorized to access it. The encryption itself doesn’t 
prevent interference in transmit of the data but obfuscates the intelligible 
content to those who are not authorized to access it. Not only is encryption 
the most common form of protecting sensitive information across transit, but 
it can also be used to secure data ‘at rest’ such as information that is stored 
in databases or other storage devices.
 8. Scan your website for vulnerabilities
Regular security checks and scans can keep the web application risk at bay. 
It is wise to perform security scans on your website at least once a week. 
Also, perform scans whenever you make a change in your application. 
Besides, keep in mind that even the best security scanners can’t detect 
everything.
 9. Automate and integrate security tools
If an organization is taking most of the web asset maintenance and new 
application development manually, it is opening its door to thousands of 
vulnerabilities. However, most of the IT institutions provide automated and 
integrated security solutions. When this is done right, reliable reports of 
automatically verified vulnerabilities are loaded directly into the developers’ 
bug trackers and of straight to the fixing stage, bypassing the bottleneck of 
manual verification by the security team.
 10. Train the employees
In an organization, some people might have a grasp on the importance of 
web application security. Others either have the most basic knowledge of the 
issue or nothing at all. Henceforth, the organization should take a big 
initiative to educate all employees regarding website security. This will make 
them spot vulnerabilities themselves.