Why Should Devs Care About Security?
In today’s world of data breaches and ransomware, security isn’t optional, it’s critical.
A single vulnerability can compromise millions of users.
Reputations and trust are lost faster than bugs are fixed.
Security debt is costlier than technical debt.
Whether you're building a side project or a billion-dollar platform, secure code matters.
10 Security Practices Every Developer Should Follow
1.Sanitize Input
Never trust user input. Validate, sanitize, and encode it to prevent SQL injection, XSS, and other nasties.
2.Use Authentication & Authorization Properly
Use established libraries (e.g. OAuth2, JWT, Auth0).
Avoid writing your own crypto or auth logic.
3. Secure Dependencies
Use tools like npm audit, snyk, dependabot.
Keep your libraries up to date, vulnerabilities lurk in outdated code.
4. Store Secrets Safely
Never commit API keys, passwords, or tokens.
Use secret managers (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, etc.)
5. Understand OWASP Top 10
If you haven’t read it, start today. These are the most critical security risks for web apps:
Injection
Broken Authentication
Sensitive Data Exposure
6. Use HTTPS Everywhere
Always encrypt data in transit.
Tools like Let’s Encrypt make HTTPS simple.
7. Least Privilege Principle
Only give access to what is necessary, for users and services. Don’t run everything as root.
8. Implement Logging and Monitoring
Detect suspicious behavior before it turns into a breach. Tools: ELK Stack, Prometheus, Grafana.
9.Perform Security Testing
Static Analysis (SAST)
Dynamic Analysis (DAST)
Penetration Testing
10. Secure Your CI/CD Pipeline
Scan your builds for secrets and vulnerabilities.
Use signed commits and protect your branches.
Recommended Tools Purpose Tool
Dependency Scanning Snyk, npm audit, OWASP Dependency-Check
Static Code Analysis SonarQube, CodeQL
Secret Detection GitGuardian, TruffleHog
Pen Testing OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite
Final Thoughts
Security is a shared responsibility,not just for DevOps, not just for security teams. If you write code, you own its security.
Build it secure. Build it smart. Build it now.