The Cyber Defense eMagazine November Edition for 2023

OAuth 1.0 to OAuth 2.0, or increasing regulatory requirements for multi-factor authentication (MFA), the
increased compliance workload pulls valuable time away from building a product. Increasingly, platforms
have recognized this burden and are investing in building out-of-the-box tools required to reduce the load.
Underpinning this is extensive documentation, education and support for developers who need help or
are interested in taking a deeper dive.
An example is the large range of identity tools for user access and credentials that make signing-up and
signing-into apps easier for customers, like Single-Sign On using Xero, Okta or Google. Developers can
leverage existing customer details within the security of the platform as part of their onboarding and login
flow. Additionally, some platforms have already established complementary MFA tools as part of their
login flow. This is especially useful for developers wanting to add additional security protocols for their
product, or those operating or wanting to operate in countries like Australia where MFA is mandatory for
digital service providers. Research from Verizon shows that MFA can prevent up to 80% of data breaches
making it one of the most effective methods to protect customer data, especially if their credentials are
compromised.
Point-of-sale and payments platforms like Square, Stripe and Shopify all offer secure and easily
integrated checkout and payments solutions so developers don’t need to build their own. This helps avoid
the increased compliance, risk and security burdens that come with directly managing payments - a highly
regulated global industry.
Platforms also constantly monitor the operation and security of their APIs with dedicated teams and tools.
Issues or unusual behavior, such as sudden spikes in request volumes or webhooks errors, can be
immediately flagged for investigation, enabling the platforms to move quickly in response and notify
developers. Where there may be a product or feature slowness or outage, this also helps both parties
manage the customer experience for end-users with status updates or a quick resolution.
Reducing burden and barriers to entry for developers encourages innovation and experimentation in a
platform. With developers being supported by cybersecurity features at the platform level, their time is
freed up to focus on doing what they do best - solving problems and innovating. This ultimately benefits
end-user customers who can use the platform and choose associated integrations with greater
confidence.
Time to focus on the basics
Developers and end-users both benefit from the work that cloud platforms do in cybersecurity. By
prioritizing identifying and working with platforms that provide a secure environment, developers are
prioritizing the safety of the data of both parties. They’re also freeing up resources to spend on building
out their products and solutions, enabling time to be spent on developing features that customers want.
But even with platforms taking a lot of the security burden off of developers, it’s not permission to be idle
when creating solutions. There are many other basic security practices and processes that should
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