Guidelines for Supporting Software Engineers in Developing Secure Web Applications

Klara Svensson, Drake Axelrod, Mazen Mohamad, Rebekka Wohlrab

Abstract: As software applications get increasingly connected and complex, cybersecurity becomes more and more important to consider during development and evaluation. Software engineers need to be aware of various security threats and the countermeasures that can be taken to mitigate them. Currently, there is a lack of guidance for software engineers aiming to develop secure web applications. We conducted a design science research study, resulting in a set of guidelines to aid software engineers in developing secure web applications. The set of guidelines was constructed based on interview data with 10 industry practitioners. These guidelines were then evaluated using a survey with 28 respondents. Our results indicate that these proposed guidelines can be applied by software engineers to support the development and assessment of secure web applications in different stages of the software development lifecycle.