Experience and understanding of Best Practices is archived through Pain even in the Information Technology Field. Embracing them – may lead to Pain Reduction – in the long term.
Security
S stands for Security in IOT. If you are value creator, you think more – how to serve the public, how to create value, how to stay above the sea level – financially and so on. Security is a necessary for all things to continue working, but your focus is not on them. And sometimes – things may go off the road because of it.
Passwords
The best practices for passwords are:
- Change them in some period
- Have different passwords for every service
So – even if some particular service leaks – you will not have high priority task – to change passwords everywhere. You may use BCrypt with high complexity factor, but you don’t know, if other services don’t use sha512, or even md5. In the end all hashing is breakable – given enough time and computing power. The thing is – how bad it will be – when it does.
Two pass authentication
Second pass authentication is already public standard for know and unknown platforms. If you use any service that does not have it, be on thorns.
Lock your screen
Nowadays – any modern enough device has biometrics – and you can log in with simple biometrics. Locking your device is a no-brainer – when you could unlock with simple finger or face. This also allows to put long password, so it will be hard to crack.
Encrypt Sensitive data
All big Operating Systems offer some option for encrypting a folder or even – the whole hard disk. This makes getting into your data after theft – a little bit more complex for non-expert hacker.
Location Based Security
The device you carry should be corresponding to the place you are.
Office – When you are in the working place – it is of highest security. Office buildings are guarded by paid guards.
Home – Your living place should still be considered relatively safe. But, from a corporate perspective – it is less secure. Few homes have Paid Security Guards. The company devices you may keep – may be accessed by relatives – close or distant – to the employee of the corporation.
Any Other place – On any other place – you should NOT carry any high value device. The best approach will be to carry low-level – entry device. There are 100$ Android Devices nowadays – that could have Internet Access, GPS, Mobile Internet and even Biometrics.
Goal of Software
As I’ve written before. The ultimate goal of software is to make everything accessible from anywhere.
- Have everything – as Web Based Services
- all accessible through mobile – responsive or though apps
- the possibility to execute your work on any device.
Remote Control Services
There are cheap laptops nowadays – that you could carry and not feel pain – if lost. And there are multiple Applications and Services that offer remote control. They are another point of failure of course, but, in general, they offer to now expose devices to location insecurity.
Best Practices in Coding
SOLID
Solid, Reusable and Architecture Components, and Software Layering are Best Practices that allow:
- Work by multiple developers
- Archive good Unit Testing & Code Coverage
- Less code lines changes – when changes in functionalities.
- And many more…
Ultimately – all the benefits of good practices are experiences through pain. It is principle that rains all fields and IT included.
Image Source: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/woman-burnout-multitasking-face-1733881/