Your code is the heart of everything as a software system or an application owner. As a result, your code is always vulnerable to malicious malware or sometimes unauthorized users and viruses. Therefore, you must constantly watch for any security vulnerability to help implement the best security measures to protect your system and benefit from it.

Everything There Is To Know About Secure Coding

Whether you’re a developer or not, you’ll agree that digital developments, especially the field of application and software system building, are incredibly impacting today’s world. It’s also true that in this software–dependent and interconnected world, developing applications is becoming a top priority for every developer.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a beginner or seasoned developer or just enthusiastic about safeguarding yourself from cyber-attacks. The good news is, with a well-developed and secured code, you’ll easily prevent potential exploits and attacks from anywhere, anytime. So, what is secure coding?

Also known as secure programming, secure coding is the writing of code {Codes} in a high-level programming language that uses and follows strict programming rules and principles. These rules aim at protecting and preventing potential vulnerabilities that could expose your software or application to harm.

In other words, secure coding is more than just writing code {Codes}. It’s a process that involves flawless and careful program building, writing, compiling, and releasing quality applications and software systems. To excellently produce a secure code {Codes} you need to create a safe programming environment that is reliable and secures IT infrastructure using secure software, hardware, and providers or services.

The 3 Best And Expert Tips For Creating Secure Code

Because there are many developers and IT experts, you’ll probably find many tips about creating secure code. However, according to some of the world’s best programmers, such as Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie, the American Computer scientist who created the C programing language, your application or software system is safe if you embrace tips for creating secure code such as the following.

1. Using Automated Tools

The use of automated tools in protecting your systems, software, and applications from cyber-attacks operates under a concept known as security automation. Security automation is a machine-based execution of security actions where your programs can detect, investigate and remediate various threats with or without your intervention. The automation also allows for faster analysis and response to threats by quickly detecting and intervening.

Also, another excellent example is using vulnerability scanning tools or scanners. These tools scan your network or systems for weakness and any threat of security vulnerabilities. For instance, Fuzzers are an excellent way of testing if you appropriately build your application or software to handle authorized inputs. 

Through Fuzzers, a security concept known as fuzzing provides invalid, unexpected, and random data inputs into your software to see if such information can be quickly detected and corrected. This way, you can determine how well your application or software system handles various signs of threats. Additionally, other tools like the Static Application Security Testing {SAST} can scan your code and test it at runtime for security threats.

2. Not Hard Coding Your Login Credentials

While hard-coded login credentials such as passwords seem like an incredible way of protecting access to your applications, software, or devices, they are highly vulnerable to attack than their counterparts.

When you complex code your login credentials, it makes your application or software vulnerable to attacks from hackers and malware since they can easily guess and get access. As a result, instead of hard coding your credentials, some of the best ways you can embrace are:

• Adding Controls For Minimum Passwords Complexity And Lengths

One of the best ways to protect your system is to use controls for enforcing minimum complexity and lengths for all passwords you use to authenticate user access. Longer passwords, especially those with combinations of alphanumeric and special characters, are considerably hard for attackers to guess. 

Although this still doesn’t make your login credentials 100% safe and free from attackers, the goal in using controls for enforcing complexity and length is to increase the lack of predictability for anyone to access your systems quickly. Therefore, make your passwords overly complicated and inordinately long by combining alphanumeric and special characters.

For example, various IT and programming organizations like the Open Web Application Security Project {OWASP} advise that passwords with fewer than ten characters are weak. The company suggests the safer way for your login credentials should be about 160 characters long.

On top of that, OWASP officials and others from companies like Plixer, such as Michael Patterson, the CEO of malware incident response, agree that using features like space bars increases the security of your accounts, systems, and applications.

• Using The Multifactor Authentication Means Of System, Application, And Account Protection

Similar to combining special characters, multifactor authentication also enhances the security of your passwords without making them vulnerable to easy attacks. Multifactor authentication involves the submission of a unique credential for users to verify their identity beyond passwords. 

For example, Banks and government organizations require you to verify your identity by something you know, including your password and something you possess, such as a phone in which you’ll receive a verification code sent as an SMS. Additionally, these organizations embrace biometric identifiers, including fingerprints and irises, to boost the safety and strength of multifactor authentication, especially according to the TeleSign survey.

Therefore, apart from using longer passwords, code your credentials by utilizing the multifactor authentication scheme for anyone accessing your systems, accounts, and applications.

3. Randomizing Your Session IDs

Besides not hard-coding your login credentials, another way to secure your code is by randomizing your session IDs. It’s a process where you make your session ID tokens unpredictable and therefore safeguard your account, software system, or application from hackers. If you fail to randomize your session IDs, you’ll be open to suffering from session hacking.

Also known as cookie hijacking, session hijacking is a cyber-attack experience in which attackers take over your legitimate computer session obtained from your session ID and act as you on any network services you use. This attack is dangerous because once hackers get your session IDs, they can gain authorized access to your protected accounts and data.