Business softwareGDPRMaintenanceMethod
Business application security: the essentials
6 min read
Securing a business application comes down to a handful of well-known measures rather than expensive tools: check access rights on the server for every request, protect sign-ins with strong authentication, keep components patched, encrypt data in transit, back up and test restores, and keep logs you can actually use. The most common flaws are listed publicly in the OWASP Top 10, whose 2025 edition ranks broken access control first.
This guide is for business owners and managers commissioning an application. It covers the essentials without unnecessary jargon, and the questions to put to whoever builds it.
Why small businesses are in scope
It is tempting to think attackers only go after large corporations. The data says otherwise: most attacks are automated, and they target what is vulnerable, not what is famous. Verizon's 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report finds that 31% of the breaches it analysed began with the exploitation of a software vulnerability, now ahead of stolen credentials, and that 48% involved ransomware. These are worldwide, cross-industry figures, but the lesson holds for any business application exposed to the internet: an unpatched flaw will eventually be found.
The law points the same way. In the EU and the UK, Article 32 of the GDPR requires both the controller and its processor to implement security measures appropriate to the risk. Our GDPR checklist for a business application covers what that means from the design stage.
The shared reference: the OWASP Top 10
The OWASP Foundation, a non-profit, publishes the ten most critical security risk categories for web applications. Its 2025 edition is the latest.
| Rank | OWASP 2025 category | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| A01 | Broken Access Control | A user sees or changes data that is not theirs |
| A02 | Security Misconfiguration | A default or forgotten setting opens a door |
| A03 | Software Supply Chain Failures | A third-party component is vulnerable or compromised |
| A04 | Cryptographic Failures | Data is poorly encrypted, or not at all |
| A05 | Injection | Crafted input is executed as a command |
| A06 | Insecure Design | The flaw lies in the design, not the code |
| A07 | Authentication Failures | Sign-ins are too easy to hijack |
| A08 | Software or Data Integrity Failures | An update or data changes without verification |
| A09 | Security Logging and Alerting Failures | An attack goes unnoticed |
| A10 | Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions | An unexpected error leaves the app in an unsafe state |
You do not need to master these categories. You do need a vendor who can explain how their code addresses each one. For a deeper checklist, OWASP also maintains the Application Security Verification Standard, whose version 5.0 was released in May 2025.
The essentials inside the application
Access rights checked on the server. This is OWASP's top category and the most common flaw in business software: a sales rep who can open another branch's files, a customer who reads someone else's invoice by changing a number in the address bar. Every request must check who is asking for what, on the server, not just by hiding a button on screen.
Strong authentication. Robust passwords, rate-limited sign-in attempts, and multi-factor authentication for administrators and, ideally, for every external user. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency makes wider use of multi-factor authentication the first goal of its Secure by Design Pledge for software makers.
Components kept up to date. A modern application bundles hundreds of open source libraries. Tracking and updating them is now an OWASP category in its own right (A03), and the US Secure Software Development Framework from NIST describes the practices behind it.
Data encrypted and minimised. Encrypt every connection and every backup, and above all store only what you need: data you do not hold cannot leak.
Useful logs. Who signed in, who changed what, which errors occurred: without those traces, an incident can be neither detected nor explained afterwards.
The essentials around the application
A well-written application can still be compromised by its environment. The UK's Cyber Essentials scheme, overseen by the National Cyber Security Centre, sets a baseline in five technical controls: firewalls, secure configuration, security update management, user access control and malware protection. For a business application, that translates into:
- controlled hosting, in a known location under a known jurisdiction (see where to host a business application in Europe);
- separate admin accounts, named and protected by multi-factor authentication;
- regular backups, stored separately, with restores actually tested: a backup that has never been restored is an assumption;
- monitoring that alerts on unusual errors or downtime;
- fast patching. Cyber Essentials requires updates that fix critical or high-risk vulnerabilities to be installed within 14 days of release, a reasonable benchmark wherever you operate.
All of this belongs to maintenance, which does not end at delivery. Weigh it as a running cost, as we do in subscription or upfront build.
Questions to ask your vendor
- How are access rights enforced, and which tests prove it?
- What authentication do administrators and external users get?
- Who monitors vulnerabilities in third-party components, and how quickly are they fixed?
- Where are data and backups hosted, and when was a restore last tested?
- What happens during an incident: who alerts you, how fast, and who notifies the regulator when required?
- Is AI-assisted code reviewed and tested like the rest?
That last question matters. Our article on AI app builders vs a software studio explains why code that runs is not necessarily code that is safe.
Taking over an existing application
If the application already exists, security starts with an inventory: outdated dependencies, access rules, secrets left in the code, backups, hosting accounts. Our guide to auditing an existing application describes that step, which comes before any decision to take over or rebuild.
How we work
At LPR Studio, security is not an add-on sold separately: deployment, hosting, backups, monitoring and patches are part of our approach. We also publish and run our own software in production, and we apply to your project the practices we apply to ours.
Where to start
Raise security in the very first conversation: it shapes the architecture, the hosting and the contract. Describe your need in a few lines, and we will present a free visual prototype in a video call within 5 working days, wherever you are, then explain how your application will be protected and maintained.