As a developer and IT specialist here at Anchor, security is always on the forefront of my mind. Programming often becomes a game of chess, since minor decisions we make today can greatly influence how we have to carry out actions in the future. But what happens when something goes wrong?
Security should always be a top priority when developing web applications. Web applications, such as Gmail, Youtube, and Flickr have had a commanding market share in the web app industry for a long time. Now, smaller independent services like Mint.com, Backpack, as well as thousands others have been sprouting up to grab a share of this rapidly growing industry.
However, now more than ever before, increasingly sophisticated attacks are being performed on websites. Hackers are uncovering security flaws that have existed for years. Until recently, even the widely used browser plug-in, Java, has had a major security flaw that has caused some disastrous outcomes. Even more surprisingly, the creators of the major web application Blippy had admittedly uncovered that a small number of their earlier test users had their credit card numbers snatched when Google had innocently indexed their pages. Blippy dealt with the issue rather quickly, but it made the issue on internet security even more poignant.
This is, sadly, the nature of the beast when providing online web services. Even small, nearly undetectable flaws are put under a microscope when you gain popularity and attention. After all, it’s just a small crack in your wing until you start flying.
Before I scare you off, though, let me first say that issues like these are so rare that in most cases you have a greater chance of winning the lottery than becoming a victim. If you follow simple common-sense, especially with password security, you should be confident continuing to use web apps like you have been.
Despite the small risk, the developers here at Anchor always want to make the web more secure. In addition to rigorous testing, we also have several, multiple-redundant procedures in place to recover from the worst case scenario. And since you should never fly blind, we also keep up-to-date with the latest security knowledge. To put it simply–you’re with the experts that can steer you through the storm.
Stay safe.
