Perspectives
Application security: which controls come first?
Application security starts with the operations to protect. Specific risk scenarios help determine which controls deserve priority.
Start with the data and access to protect
A list of security tools does not establish how an application is protected. Identify sensitive data, trust boundaries and high-impact actions. That assessment guides authentication, authorization and logging decisions, followed by the checks needed for each release.
Checks to include in each release
- Who can read or change which data? Verify resource-level authorization, including isolation between SaaS tenants.
- Where do secrets and data travel? Examine APIs, integrations, logs and external dependencies.
- What is checked before release? Review code, dependencies and configuration, with tests matched to risk.
- How will an incident be detected and handled? Plan actionable alerts, clear ownership and recovery procedures.
Reassess risk as the application changes
Describe concrete failure scenarios, verify existing controls and prioritize gaps according to their consequences. Revisit the scenarios when adding an integration, changing access rules or introducing AI functionality.