Data Leaks For Dummies®

Chapter 18. Making Applications Safer

In This Chapter

• Protecting your data in applications

• Evaluating the safety of Open Source software

• Testing, testing...

• Securing Software as a Service (SaaS)

With data loss at an all-time high, it seems everybody is selling technology to prevent it. Surely there has to be a better way? The answer is yes: Instead of making a specialized application do all the hard work of protecting data outside its bailiwick (which it really knows little about), the application can be tasked with keeping its own data safe.

Okay, so this isn't really practical for applications that currently exist. They do their work in the way they always have — so you do need those specialist applications to protect you. But what if you have a new application? Wouldn't it be great if the newcomer reduced the risk of data loss instead of increasing it? With that in mind, this chapter looks at how you can build data-loss prevention into your specialized applications.

Data Corruption: Worse than Data Loss?

Applications are built with one priority: functionality. Software engineers don't think about security of that application enough and certainly don't think about data loss.

Tip

Engineers who design applications are (or should be) trained to take into consideration every aspect of that application — including how and where it will be used. This isn't just about software coding; it's about business issues and other considerations that are best addressed when designing the application. This ...