“How to be cyber-secure” TED conversation by Dan Cornell

In his popular TEDX talk, globally recognised application security expert Dan Cornell highlights to his audience that not enough coders are well enough versed in the languages of software security and explains how to be cyber-secure.

strong>Dan highlights that consumers expect confidentiality, integrity and availability from their online services. This means that they need to know who has access to their data, who can modify their data and how they can access their own data. He also reminds the audience that while banking information such as credit cards can be easily stolen, it’s also not a huge deal for the bank to reissue a card and update an account. What’s not so easy, however, is recovering your medical and personally identifying information, once it has been compromised.

Read more: Mobile security – is your app safe?

The point that Dan makes is that coders need to be aware of installing security from the ground up when developing software. He shares his opinion that developers, as well as asking what their product should be able to do, also need to ask what it should not be able to do, especially when it comes to the sharing of personal information. For example, a banking app should be able to transfer money between accounts, but it should never be able to send money to a new account without the correct authorisation.

Firstly, it has to protect the information of your customers. Hackers must be prevented from accessing personal information and account details at all times. Being secure goes beyond requiring multi-digit passwords from your users.

On the other hand, your app must also be secure from hackers looking to ‘rip off’ your code and create illegal pirate versions.

You also need to make sure that nothing you are responsible for can be infected with a virus that wreaks havoc across your systems and your clients’ devices.

Read more: How to reduce app development costs

Thorough testing is essential to confirm the security of your app. You also need to ensure that your security isn’t as basic as a single ‘padlock’ that hackers can get through with a set of virtual bolt cutters. What you really need is a sophisticated mesh network of locks, that even if penetrated once, can’t be hacked through the same way multiple times.

The good news is that while cyber security expert Dan Cornell has a strong point about coders being security aware, to be a successful and secure software developer doesn’t mean heading back to university to retrain.

Instead, it is possible to incorporate ‘building blocks’ of security when developing software. These blocks come ready made, but at the same time are completely unique to prevent hackers from beating the system.

Developers will be relieved to hear that there is a solution that provides security without the massive upfront investment! To find out more about ticking all the boxes of security requirements at an excellent price point, visit quixxi.com