Welcome to this tutorial! The goal here is to learn about secure storage practices in HTML development. By the end of this tutorial, you will understand how to keep your data safe and secure both in transit and at rest.
By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:
Prerequisites:
In web development, secure storage refers to a set of practices to protect the data from unauthorized access, modification, or deletion. These practices can be divided into securing data in transit and data at rest.
Data in transit is data actively moving from one location to another such as across the internet or through a private network. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) can be used to protect the data in transit.
Data at rest is data that is not actively moving from device to device or network to network such as data stored on a hard drive, laptop, flash drive, or archived/stored in some way. Encryption at the file level is one of the best defenses for protecting data at rest.
Here are some examples of secure storage practices in HTML development.
Example 1: Using HTTPS for secure data in transit
<!-- In your HTML links or forms, always use HTTPS -->
<a href="https://www.securewebsite.com">A Secure Link</a>
<!-- When submitting a form -->
<form action="https://www.securewebsite.com/submit-data" method="post">
Example 2: Validating and sanitizing user input
// This is a simple example using JavaScript
var userInput = document.getElementById("userInput").value;
// Validate the input
if(!isValid(userInput)) {
alert("Invalid input!");
}
// Sanitize the input
userInput = sanitize(userInput);
// Now you can use the userInput safely
Expected Output:
No specific output for these code snippets, they are procedures to ensure the security of your web data.
In this tutorial, we've learned about secure storage practices in web development, specifically HTML development. We've discussed how to secure data in transit using HTTPS and secure data at rest using encryption. We've also covered the importance of validating and sanitizing user input.
Next Steps:
To further your understanding, explore more about:
Exercise 1: Convert all the HTTP links in your website to HTTPS.
Exercise 2: Implement a simple form validation for your website's contact form.
Exercise 3: Identify any sensitive data in your project that should be encrypted. Research the best encryption methods for these data types.
Solutions:
Tips for further practice: