How can you secure your web app's performance?

Web app performance is not only about speed and responsiveness, but also about security and reliability. A poorly secured web app can expose your data, users, and reputation to various risks, such as hacking, data breaches, malware, or denial-of-service attacks. In this article, you will learn some best practices and tools to secure your web app's performance and protect your online assets.

1 Use HTTPS

HTTPS is the protocol that encrypts the communication between your web app and your users' browsers. It prevents anyone from intercepting, modifying, or stealing the data that is sent or received. HTTPS also improves your web app's ranking on search engines, as well as your users' trust and confidence. To use HTTPS, you need to obtain and install a valid SSL certificate from a trusted authority, and configure your web server to redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS.

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2 Implement authentication and authorization

Authentication and authorization are the processes that verify the identity and permissions of your users. Authentication ensures that only registered and verified users can access your web app, while authorization ensures that they can only access the resources and features that they are allowed to. To implement authentication and authorization, you need to use a secure and robust framework, such as OAuth, OpenID Connect, or JWT, that supports encryption, hashing, and tokenization of user credentials and data.

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Tomas Henkenhaf

Managing Partner at Benson & Klaus | Ranked Top UX Companies in Canada by UpCity 🇨🇦
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I've found by using secure frameworks like OAuth, OpenID Connect, or JWT. You can establish a sturdy defense against unauthorized access and potential breaches. These frameworks offer encryption, hashing, and tokenization mechanisms, ensuring that user credentials and data are protected in transit and at rest. For instance, OAuth provides token-based authentication, reducing the need for applications to store sensitive user credentials. JWT, or JSON Web Tokens, can securely convey information between parties, ensuring the data's integrity. By employing such frameworks, not only are user sessions protected, but the risk of data breaches is significantly minimized.

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3 Sanitize user input and output

User input and output are the main sources of potential vulnerabilities in your web app, such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, or cross-site request forgery. These attacks can compromise your database, server, or client-side code, and expose your web app to malicious actions or data theft. To sanitize user input and output, you need to validate, filter, and escape any data that is entered or displayed by your users, using built-in or external libraries, such as HTML Purifier, OWASP ESAPI, or PDO.

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Ndono Karanja

Full stack Developer || Software developer
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Content Security Policy (CSP): Implement a CSP to control which sources of content (scripts, styles, fonts, etc.) can be executed on your web app.

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4 Update and patch your software

Your web app's performance depends on the software that runs it, such as your web server, database, framework, or libraries. These software components may contain bugs, errors, or vulnerabilities that can affect your web app's functionality, security, or speed. To update and patch your software, you need to regularly check for new releases, fixes, or improvements from the official sources, and apply them to your web app's environment, using automated or manual tools, such as Composer, NPM, or Git.

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5 Monitor and test your web app

Monitoring and testing your web app are essential steps to secure your web app's performance and identify any issues or anomalies that may arise. Monitoring allows you to track and measure your web app's metrics, such as availability, response time, traffic, or errors, using tools such as Google Analytics, New Relic, or Pingdom. Testing allows you to simulate and evaluate your web app's behavior, functionality, and security, using tools such as Selenium, JMeter, or Nmap.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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CHANDRA PRAKASH GUPTA

JavaScript | Angular | React | Go | Frontend/Web/Hybrid MobileApp Developer
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To commence the journey towards an optimized web app, front-end code optimization takes precedence. Minification and compression of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files significantly reduce load times, while asynchronous loading of scripts prevents rendering bottlenecks. Employing Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) not only accelerates asset delivery but also fortifies global accessibility. Embracing lazy loading for non-essential assets, coupled with judicious caching, elevates load speeds and decreases server loads.

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Ndono Karanja

Full stack Developer || Software developer
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User Education: Educate users about security best practices, such as creating strong passwords and recognizing phishing attempts. It is important to have a multi-layered security approach and stay informed about emerging threats and best practices.

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How can you secure your web app's performance?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Use HTTPS

2 Implement authentication and authorization

3 Sanitize user input and output

4 Update and patch your software

5 Monitor and test your web app

6 Here’s what else to consider

Web Development

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How can you secure your web app's performance?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Use HTTPS

2 Implement authentication and authorization

3 Sanitize user input and output

4 Update and patch your software

5 Monitor and test your web app

6 Here’s what else to consider

Web Development

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