The importance of cyber awareness in coding

It’s an incredibly exciting time to pursue a career in software development. The digital transformation of everything is bringing in new disruptive technologies that are transforming our work and lifestyle. Coders enjoy being a part of this fast-paced new digital world where their work on a project could positively impact teams across a whole organisation for decades to come.

However, new digital business models powered by emerging technologies can also unwittingly create new weaknesses and vulnerabilities for attackers to exploit. It’s easy for developers to be distracted by short deadlines and the realities of not having enough security knowledge. But undetected errors can open up a business to increased technical debt and devastating cyber-attacks.

 

Why is cyber awareness important in coding?

Developers are on the front line in defending software applications against security threats. According to Verizon, 43% of data are caused by web application vulnerabilities, and a more recent 2022 data breach investigations report revealed that 82% of actual breaches were caused by human error. As a result, cyber awareness has become a critical conversation for business leaders and decision-makers in every industry.

Developer teams that adopt secure coding processes are moving the industry away from the traditional reactive approach to cyber-attacks. Instead, by removing the software vulnerabilities from the outset. It’s important to remember that coding can be at the heart of a more proactive approach that includes designing new solutions with a security-first mindset.

Secure coding and investing resources into identifying and fixing code vulnerabilities can prevent data breaches while helping businesses safely avoid long-term reputational damage. From an ROI perspective, it can also protect against GDPR regulatory fines that can be €20 million or 4% of worldwide turnover. As a result, coding and cyber security are much more closely aligned than many realise.

 

Best practices for secure programming

According to Security Magazine, 67% of app developers have admitted to shipping code with known vulnerabilities in their careers. This worrying statistic, combined with the over 30,000 data breaches and hacks served as a wake-up call to the industry about the importance of cyber awareness in coding.  But would you to be one of those people making a difference with your work?

The software development life cycle (SDLC) has always represented a framework that covers the building of an application from idea to decommission. But more recently, cyber security in software development is also becoming a crucial part of that journey. So, unsurprisingly, secure coding is now table stakes in ensuring that developers write code free from vulnerabilities.

Ultimately, developers are now expected to take ownership by regularly updating their code and dependencies to prevent application vulnerabilities from ever occurring. The widely respected OWASP Secure Coding Practices guide provides professionals with a list of best practices, from data protection, communication safety, and system configuration to database security, error handling, and logging.

However, secure coding also prevents broken access control caused by insecure design, misconfiguration, or vulnerable and outdated components. This exciting area of the industry has never been more accessible with a range of courses such as the Full Stack Pro Collection that takes students on a journey from the critical foundations up to the professional standards of software development.

 

 

Cyber security in software development

Security software developers are often seen as the unsung heroes of our always-online digital world. They have a reputation for having a keen eye for detail across the entire software creation cycle. They are happiest when leading the design process from the design, testing, and implementation phases to future upgrades or eventual decommissioning of the software.

Collaboration between the developer community and security teams is crucial to businesses trying to win the battle against attackers continuously scanning their corporate email, software applications, and document management systems for weaknesses. For these reasons alone, cyber security and software development will always be intrinsically linked.

Devices don’t use coding languages, coders do. We often forget how we are surrounded by computer code or how software developers are essentially creating a series of instructions that a machine can understand. But most importantly of all, cyber security plays a critical role in the software development lifecycle in every industry. Together, these two areas create and protect the ideas that change the world.

 

How easy is it to get into coding?

Regardless of age, background, or technical experience, becoming a software developer has never been easier. You can learn remotely at your own pace with our highly experienced team of experts waiting on standby to support you every step of the way.

We understand that you will have many questions about learning to code, and you might be initially overwhelmed with the number of courses and career paths at your disposal. Therefore, we invite you to take our 5-step coding challenge, which will help you discover if it’s right for you, and your future career, and finally retire the imposter syndrome that has been holding you back.

If you are looking for inspiration, check out some of our recent coding student success stories that highlight how enrolling with Learning People helped secure their dream role in tech as a software developer. Would you like to follow in their footsteps?

Whether you are set on becoming a Javanista or Pythonista or accessing our novice to job ready Full Stack Pro Collection, we are here to help you start, change, or progress your career.

Contact us now to claim your place in professional coding and web design.