What are the best practices for web development security in different maturity stages?

1 What is the security maturity model for web development?

The security maturity model for web development is a tool that helps you measure and improve your web security capabilities. It is based on the idea that web security is not a binary state, but a continuous process that evolves over time. The model defines four stages of security maturity: basic, intermediate, advanced, and expert. Each stage has a set of security objectives, practices, and controls that you should implement and follow to achieve a higher level of security. The model also helps you identify your current security gaps and prioritize your security actions.

2 How to assess your security maturity stage?

To assess your security maturity stage, you need to evaluate your web security objectives, practices, and controls against the criteria of each stage. You can use a self-assessment questionnaire, a security audit, or a third-party assessment service to help you with this process. The main factors to consider are your web security goals and requirements, policies and procedures, testing and monitoring, incident response and recovery, and awareness and training. Aim to meet or exceed the criteria of your desired security maturity stage, and address any security weaknesses or vulnerabilities that you find.

3 What are the best practices for the basic stage?

At the basic stage of web development, you should have some security objectives, practices, and controls in place, but they may not be enough to prevent or mitigate most web security risks. To ensure a secure web development, you should use secure coding standards and guidelines, secure web frameworks and libraries, HTTPS and SSL/TLS encryption, strong passwords and authentication mechanisms, basic input validation and output encoding, and basic web security tools and scanners.

4 What are the best practices for the intermediate stage?

The intermediate stage is the next level of security that you should aim for your web development. This means that you have more comprehensive and systematic security objectives, practices, and controls in place, which can help prevent or mitigate some of the common web security risks. To achieve this, you should use secure development lifecycle and methodologies, secure configuration and deployment, secure session management and cookies, secure data storage and encryption, advanced input validation and output encoding, and advanced web security tools and scanners.

5 What are the best practices for the advanced stage?

The advanced stage of web development security is the highest level you should strive for. It involves having robust and mature security objectives, practices, and controls in place, so that you can prevent or mitigate most of the web security risks. To reach this stage, you should use security by design and default principles, security architecture and design patterns, security code reviews and audits, security testing and monitoring tools and services, security incident response and recovery plans and procedures, and security awareness and training programs and resources.

6 What are the best practices for the expert stage?

The expert stage is the highest level of security for web development, meaning that you have the most advanced security objectives, practices, and controls in place. To reach this stage, you should use security research and development, automation and orchestration, intelligence and analytics, threat modeling and risk analysis, bug bounty and reward programs, and community and collaboration. These best practices will help you prevent or mitigate any web security risks.