Securing Your Web Application: Best Practices

Security cannot be an afterthought. In an era of increasing cyber threats, building secure software is a professional responsibility.

OWASP Top 10

Familiarize yourself with the OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, including Injection, Broken Authentication, and Sensitive Data Exposure.

Key Defenses

• Input Validation: Never trust user input. Sanitize and validate everything.
• Authentication: Use established protocols like OAuth 2.0. Don't roll your own crypto.
• HTTPS Everywhere: Encrypt data in transit.
• Dependency Management: Regularly scan your libraries for known vulnerabilities (e.g., using npm audit).

Shift Left

Integrate security into your CI/CD pipeline. Automated security testing (SAST/DAST) catches issues early when they are cheaper to fix.