SECURITY MAY NOT BE AT THE TOP OF THE LIST WHEN DEVELOPING A SOFTWARE APPLICATION. WITH THE FOCUS ON LEADING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATIVE FUNCTIONALITY, ORGANISATIONS CAN HARDLY BE BLAMED FOR OVERLOOKING SECURITY. HOWEVER, ONCE THE APPLICATION IS IMPLEMENTED, SECURITY BECOMES ONE OF THE TOP PRIORITIES. THIS IS WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO GIVE SECURITY THE RESPECT IT DESERVES DURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN APPLICATION.
When software is developed, a foundation is put in place on which one or more business operations depend on. No matter what is built, a solid and secure foundation should be imperative. Putting in place secure development practices that are auditable and measureable is the only way to ensure that the foundation is safe.
Secure development practices involve not only writing code that is difficult for unauthorised users or systems to interact with; but also must cater for encryption to protect the data across the medium on which it travels (think about the WiFi data collection Google has been accused of).
Of course the last piece of the security puzzle lies in the infrastructure (both software and hardware related), that in effect physically protects an application and related data.