Enhancing Application Security with Low-Code Platforms
When it comes to software development, ensuring application security has always been paramount. Traditionally this means thorough and often extensive time and resources to implement comprehensive security measures.
While selecting software solutions or application development platforms, engineering leaders typically weigh several critical factors: platform capabilities, cost, user experience, community, and support.
However, recent insights reveal that security is not just another checkbox on their list; it’s the top priority for nearly 48% of buyers.
TL;DR
However, low-code development addresses application security challenges, or rather, requirements natively out of the offering of built-in authentication, access control features, compliance, and adherence to security standards.
This blog explores how low-code can address application security concerns, making it an attractive option for VPs of Engineering, CTOs, and developers.
Let’s first start with application security basics;
The growing need for application security
With cyber threats becoming more sophisticated and frequent, organizations must ensure their software applications are secure from vulnerabilities and attacks. Traditional development methods require significant effort to incorporate security measures throughout the development lifecycle, making the process time-consuming and resource-intensive.
Application security is crucial for protecting sensitive data, maintaining user trust, and mitigating financial and reputational risks.
For example, a data breach at a financial institution not only compromises customer information but also erodes trust and can lead to significant financial losses and regulatory penalties.
As James Comey, former Director of the FBI once said, “To make our digital world safer, we all need to get smarter about cybersecurity.”
This underscores the importance of proactive measures to secure software applications against evolving threats.
By prioritizing application security, organizations demonstrate their commitment to safeguarding data integrity, ensuring business continuity, and protecting their stakeholders’ interests.
Common application security challenges
Vulnerabilities in application code, such as improper input validation or insecure configurations, pose significant risks if not addressed early in the development lifecycle.
Moreover, the complexity of modern software systems and the integration of third-party components increase the attack surface, making it challenging to detect and mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
As cybersecurity advisor Richard A. Clarke noted, “The day-to-day noise of cybersecurity can distract from the most important thing: understanding the specific threats faced by your organization.”
Gartner peer community insights that we cannot miss;
Around half of the leaders experienced software-related security issues recently, often stemming from open-source code (42%), code in purchased tools (40%), and legacy code (38%).
Interestingly, only a small fraction (12%) identified AI-generated code as a source of recent security issues.
This emphasizes the critical role of open-source code as a potential risk factor, leading organizations to adopt vulnerability assessments (VAs) to gauge their risk exposure accurately.
Source: Gartner
Low-code platforms building trust with tech leaders on application security
Low-code platforms enable developers and engineering teams to build applications 10 times faster. With pre-built components, drag-and-drop interfaces, and automated workflows, these platforms streamline simple projects, allowing teams to focus on more critical and impactful tasks.
Amit Bhavani, Senior VP of Engineering @ Media.net says, “Engineers should focus on core business tasks, but internal demands often divert their attention, consuming about 25% of their time. We’ve identified 70+ engineers and provided them with DronaHQ to build 10x faster. This reduces trivial tasks to 1/5th of their time, resulting in 5x productivity gains and more time for core product development.”
But beyond efficiency, low-code platforms bring substantial security benefits that can help address common application security challenges;
1. Built-in security features
Low-code platforms come with robust built-in security features, which can save significant development time and ensure consistent security practices across applications.
| Security feature | Low-code platform | Traditional development |
| User Authentication | Built-in Authentication: Easily configurable with pre-built modules for various authentication methods (e.g., OAuth, SSO). | Custom Authentication: Requires manual implementation and integration, which can be complex and error-prone. |
| Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) | Integrated RBAC: Pre-configured roles and permissions can be easily set up within the platform. | Custom RBAC: Implementing RBAC requires manual coding and management, often leading to inconsistencies. |
| Data Encryption | Automatic Encryption: Data encryption is often built into the platform, including encryption at rest and in transit. | Manual Encryption: Requires custom implementation and management of encryption algorithms and practices. |
| Secure Coding Practices | Built-In Security: Platform includes security best practices and automated checks to enforce secure coding standards. | Manual Security: Developers must manually implement and enforce secure coding practices, increasing the risk of vulnerabilities. |
| Compliance | Pre-Configured Compliance: Often includes features that assist in meeting regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA). | Custom Compliance: Requires manual implementation and frequent updates to meet compliance standards. |
2. Standardized practices
Low-code platforms enforce secure coding standards by default, reducing the likelihood of introducing vulnerabilities. This includes input validation, output encoding, and secure session management.
“Standardization in low-code platforms helps mitigate human errors and ensures that security best practices are consistently applied.” – CTO, Software Industry, >500 employees
3. Regular updates and Patch management
One of the significant advantages of low-code platforms is that the vendors handle regular updates and security patches for the platform itself. This ensures that the underlying infrastructure remains secure without requiring additional effort from the development team.
4. Input validation and sanitization
Low-code platforms often include built-in mechanisms for input validation and sanitization, which are crucial for preventing injection attacks and other input-based vulnerabilities.
DronaHQ provides automatic input validation and sanitization features, ensuring that user inputs are thoroughly checked before processing. This reduces the risk of cross-site scripting (XSS) and other common vulnerabilities. For SQL injection protection, DronaHQ offers an advanced option in its SQL connector to enable prepared statements, effectively safeguarding against SQL injection attacks.
5. Compliance with industry standards
Many low-code platforms are designed to comply with industry standards and regulations, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. This simplifies the process of achieving compliance for applications built on these platforms.
“Using a low-code platform that adheres to industry standards helps us meet regulatory requirements more efficiently and confidently.” – VP of Engineering, Healthcare Industry, >1000 employees.
6. Secure integrations
Low-code platforms offer secure integrations with third-party services and APIs, often including built-in security features such as OAuth for secure authentication. This ensures that data exchanged between systems remains protected.
7. Logging and monitoring
Built-in logging and monitoring features in low-code platforms help track user activities and detect suspicious behavior. These features are essential for identifying and responding to potential security incidents.
DronaHQ, offers comprehensive logging and monitoring capabilities, enabling organizations to keep a close eye on their applications’ security status and quickly address any anomalies.
8. Reduced complexity
Low-code platforms abstract much of the underlying complexity, making it easier for developers to implement secure solutions without deep security expertise. This reduces the likelihood of security misconfigurations and errors.
Point to be considered; By using pre-built components and templates that follow security best practices, low-code platforms enable developers to build secure applications more efficiently.
9. Rapid development and iteration
The rapid development capabilities of low-code platforms allow for quicker identification and remediation of security issues. This agile approach enables organizations to respond promptly to emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
CleverTap, a SaaS company specializing in customer engagement and analytics, used DronaHQ to quickly develop and deploy more than 70+ internal apps. The platform’s rapid iteration capabilities allowed them to address security concerns and implement enhancements in a timely manner.
Final thoughts on enhancing application security with low-code
As evidenced by insights from the Gartner Peer Community, understanding and addressing vulnerabilities, particularly those associated with open source and legacy code, remains pivotal.
With tech leaders increasingly confident in their ability to safeguard applications, the integration of low-code solutions emerges not just as a convenience, but a strategic imperative in fostering trust, protecting data integrity, and fortifying organizational resilience.
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