Techniques used for Secure Coding

We are living in a world that is unceasingly relying on technology and upgraded software for many different activities. This has made it obvious for software engineers to come up with safe, secure and better coding or apps that will forestall the possible threats from attackers. Organizations and individuals are now making financial transactions electronically which is giving rise to security mishaps mainly because of malfunctioning of the application's software. A code which is not well secured means that it will result in considerable harm and companies belonging to various sectors (for example banking, energy, transport, telecom, healthcare etc.) will have to face malpractices in the form of financial losses, damage to property, larceny, physical damage or maneuverings etc.

What is secure coding?

Source code is an essential part of the computer program. It includes a number of instructions or statements which a programmer or coder creates and writes. It is usually written in the form of functions, commands, descriptions etc. which users and programmers can easily read and understand. In secure coding, programmers adhere to stringent rules and principles when it comes to writing, gathering, or setting codes in an application. They adopt a standardized language with an intent to mitigate and preclude the anticipated vulnerabilities i.e. disclosure of sensitive data or harm to a network. Not only this, it also requires a well-managed and highly secure IT infrastructure, efficient hardware and software for best results.

Many renowned companies having all the relevant resources have faced data breaches which reveals how insecure and cumbersome these soft wares are. Secure coding is important for companies that provide software services to people and other businesses because if they are not up to the mark, it will harm company's reputation. Ultimately they will lose customers and their trust because confidential data is their biggest and most valuable asset.

Major techniques involved in secure coding

While working on secure programming coders must ensure that the procedures and practices are simple, also referred to as KISS in computer science. Complex methods brings unfavorable and varying results so they must be avoided. 

Access Control: It grants permission to some individuals and restricts others from having access to the resources based on their login credentials. Authentication is the term used here to verify the identity of individual who tries to access the system. While authorization grants them access to some specific resources based on users attributes. This makes sure that your system is highly secured and well protected.

Secure management: This is another security policy that businesses must adopt. It comprises of a set of tools used to control and protect your sensitive information or authentication credentials for example password, APIs, or access keys etc. Revealing or uploading such confidential information on the code repositories can be problematic, so it must be kept as a secret. Also make sure your password is strong and complex to deal with common attacks. If a number of incorrect attempts are made to sign in, the system should deny them from entry. 

Strong data encryption: Another way of securing your data is by ensuring it is encrypted properly. You must encode your data in a way that only those users with the right encryption key can have access to it. For this purpose, you can refer to libraries and other sources that will help you to write a custom code.

Auditing, error management and logging: Software related errors can be in the form of bugs or cookies that can make companies vulnerable. To pare down their effect, error management and logging techniques are important. In error management, the errors in the code are detected which can prevent major incidents or failures. Logging helps programmers to diagnose errors in the documents and efficiently deal with it. 

Threat Modeling: In this framework the different threat agents are identified who can pose a threat to the computer system. There are four steps that developers follow here i.e. document, identify threats, address and validate. This process helps them to recognize the attackers or the possible threats that could arise. 

Regular security testing, keeping the system up to date and following these above mentioned guidelines will ensure that your code is secure and free from errors.