Over the last thirty or so years, computers, the web, and technology have had a transformative effect on modern life, bringing huge benefits like improved communications, email, streaming media, and video calling technologies.
However, while devices, software, and the web have undoubtedly brought huge advantages, our reliance on the web and tech nonetheless comes with its own risks and the ever-present dangers posed by cybercriminals and hackers.
The internet offers a world of opportunities – and, sadly, potential dangers
The global cost of cybercrime is expected to reach a staggering $6 trillion this year and, if you did a like-for-like comparison of online criminality with the economies of nations worldwide, it would sit third, narrowly behind the USA and China. Perhaps more worryingly, the revenue created by internet crime is forecast to increase year on year by 15% for the next five years, eventually reaching the incredible figure of $10.5 trillion as early as 2025.
The part software plays in online crime
Never before has the world been more connected – yet each time we go online using a web browser, email client, or similar, we potentially expose ourselves to crime.
This situation has been yet further exacerbated with the exponential rise of e-commerce and social media sites in recent years, meaning, today, we share more of our personal lives and sensitive data online than at any other time in internet history.
The responsibility of software developers to keep users safe
Software developers have an inherent responsibility to produce the most secure, bulletproof, and reliable products for their users. Whether a development company is building a bespoke app product for a single company or producing a platform that has the potential to establish a global user base, the same onus of responsibility applies.
Software development security encompasses a huge range of processes used by specialist programming firms to ensure their products are fit for use and offer adequate security protection during the production phase and further down the line when the product is released for public use.
Indeed, if you speak to any skilled developer, they’ll tell you that software production isn’t a finite, one-off task but rather an ongoing process of upgrades and fixed refinements to improve their product.
As Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, one of the world’s largest online companies, once said, “Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.”
Perhaps more than any other statement, this encapsulates the idea of software progression through its initial development and life cycle. Software programmers, designers (and even their clients) rarely hit the nail on the head the first time they produce an application. Rather, a software product almost takes on a life of its own with inevitable tweaks, ideas for improvements, fixes, and security risks developing over time.
For this reason, reputable software dev companies realize their responsibilities far outlast the initial flurry and excitement of launch day and instead actively support their products with security updates and patches for as long as they still have enough users to keep their apps viable.
