Trust (Why is Trust so Important for Application Development?)

Trust: The Fundamental, Indispensable, Vital Component of Application Development that (Almost) Nobody Talks About.

Because it is an uncomfortable topic. We want to believe that the product or service that we create and provide can, in fact, be relied upon to do what we want it to do safely and securely. In this respect, there’s no difference between building a car, a house or an application. Trust in our product or service is a basic key to success.

But when it comes to cybersecurity and our applications, these pesky statistics really make our skin crawl:

• 419 million records of Facebook users – 20% of their customers – were exposed in 2019 because of a vulnerability.
• IoT (Internet of Things) devices were attacked an average of 5,233 times per month in 2019.

• Millennials are more likely than anyone else to fall victim to a cybercrime. [Source]

By September 2019, there were 5,183 breaches worldwide, resulting in the exposure of 7.9 billion records (yes, that’s billion, with a ‘b’). [Source]

More uncomfortable still is the fact that 87% of customers will go to a competitor if they feel they cannot trust a company with their data. And only 25% of consumers trust that companies will take the security of their data seriously enough to protect it.

The Covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the problem, further eroding what little trust is left.

Now, More than Ever, It’s Time to Tell the Truth… to Ourselves.

The sooner we’re willing to take an honest look at what’s working and what’s not working, the sooner we can do something about it. And the sooner we can close the gaps and garner the trust that is so hard to come by these days. So it’s time to ask some difficult questions:

• How safe are our applications, really? How would we know?
• Are our developers trained to incorporate security into the applications they create and develop?
• What are we doing, ongoingly, to make sure we’re at least one step ahead of the cybercriminals?
• Are we more interested in being reactive or proactive when it comes to cybersecurity and the security of our applications?
• What would the true cost of ignoring cybersecurity be to us? Are we willing to pay the price?

Do the smart thing. Protect the people who matter the most: your customers and clients, your developers, and you.

Training our developers to find and close the vulnerabilities in their product(s) builds Trust. And Trust supports the success and longevity of our organizations. Now, more than ever, well-informed, committed action is crucial. Maybe there’s no ‘silver bullet’ against all cyber attacks. But Training most certainly provides a measure of protection that would not exist without it. And one significant result is Trust.

How can we make a difference for you?