What you will learn
In this article, we’ll provide a brief introduction to low-code development and the different tools and platforms available for low-code development. After discussing the trends, growth, and a few downsides of low-code platforms, we’ll focus on the article’s main agenda. With security concerns being the most cited issue amongst developers and critics of low-code, we’ll focus on the security vulnerabilities that could occur, how to test them, and how to deal with them.
What Are Low-Code Development Platforms?
Low-code development platforms (LCDPs) offer a drag-and-drop or WYSIWYG interface that enables users to write code, rather than a conventional text editor or IDE where the developer must write all the code from scratch. A few examples of low-code development platforms are Appian, Mendix, Tidelift, Salesforce, and Crowdbotics. Low-code apps are becoming increasingly popular; Forrester predicts the total LCDP market to reach 21 billion USD by 2022.
A low-code development environment is not an entirely new concept. For years, design engineers have been using rapid prototyping for 3D printing, CASE (Computer-Aided Software Engineering), and CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software for building products.
LCDPs mimic the same concept as CAD, using a graphical user interface to build programs and abstract the process of hand-writing codes. Many developers and enterprises are beginning to embrace LCDPs because of the **benefits **they offer. Here are some major advantages of LCDPs:
- Developers don’t need to be proficient with any particular coding language. Understanding the tools and requirements of the LCDP itself will suffice.
- This, in turn, makes it easy for managers to bring on new talent, as LCDPs reduce the onboarding learning process significantly.
- Development time is faster, providing more time to concentrate on the application’s more subtle or customized details.
- The resulting applications are more user-friendly and scalable than traditional, manually coded apps.
However, there are a few **downsides **to LCDPs. For instance, LCDPs can sometimes limit developer creativity by offering fewer customization options. You don’t know the underlying software and the logic used to run your application, leaving a knowledge void there. LCDPs are not often built to support many third-party integrations, either.
However, let’s go ahead and address the most severe concern that teams voice about using LCDPs: security.
Security Concerns in Low-Code Development Platforms and How to Tackle Them
Here we’ll see what kind of security issues low-code platforms pose, how developers can identify these loose ends, and how to deal with them.
Vulnerabilities Via Third-Party Integrations
If an organization is new to the low-code ecosystem, the developer team tends to follow handwritten coding norms. One standard routine followed is using third-party integrations. These external integrations could be with cloud services, applications, or databases.
Integrations could be added for numerous reasons such as search, captcha, shopping cart, login and authentication, emails, messages, and so forth. As discussed earlier, low-code platforms may not natively support the incorporation of such integrations. Hence, they don’t handle any security threats that arise due to such integrations, which are unfortunately a common risk.
Integration-related vulnerabilities could also arise when we try to deploy our application outside of the low-code platform. For this reason, it is best to deploy in the same environment as the LCDP.
#digital security #low code #app builder #cybersecurity #product development
