The variety of modern software makes it and its developers even more subjected to different challenges. Many programs are used by financial organizations and authorities, so the information contained there must be reliably protected. Even ordinary people would like to save the confidentiality of their personal information and images and they hope that software developers have taken this into account. All this is called “information security” and our task is to realize what role it plays in web development.
According to information security definition, it is a kind of practice that involves defending of information from disruption, unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, destruction, inspection etc. It is most often applied to technology and it helps to avoid or prevent computer system threats like thefts, software attacks, sabotage, information extortion etc.
Most of the information security articles define three main objectives of security: maintenance of confidentiality, availability, and integrity.
Data confidentiality is a kind of protection that allows only authorized people to have access to vital data. In the world of developers, such a loss of confidentiality is called breach and is impossible to be remedied.
Availability involves the accessibility of information only to authorized users, who have right for that.
Integrity is a term that characterizes the authenticity of information. Attackers may change important issues and the received data can be not truthful, so integrity is very important.
The key problem of modern software developers is a proper implementation of all information technology security constituents during the phase of development. It means that any mistake or skipping of the process may result in problems with functioning and unexpected disruptive events. Consequently, it is of great importance to include the development of InfoSec into the stages performed during software development.
Some organizations intentionally do not involve information systems security, while the others suffer from mistakes made by web developers. All problems that appear as a result are costly and problematic to solve. These are only some of the examples that may be experienced because of IS failures:
All the sensitive data requires reliable protection and for this purpose, such term as security control was invented. It focuses on two basic principles, according to which it is important to determine any vulnerability of the system and remove it as well as provide users only with required functionality not to interfere with functions that are not presupposed.
There are three main types of security control such as:
Nowadays InfoSec has become a very popular field for research as no one has invented a system that is 100% protected yet. Most of the information security news state that scientists have found a new way to protect software, but unfortunately these means are not universal and cannot be applied to every innovative product. But in fact, information security is an indispensable part of software development and it must be paid much attention if a developer wishes that his/her product could function for a long period of time.