Security considerations

Whenever we add functionality to our Java applications that sends information external to our application or receives information from external sources, security becomes a paramount concern. This is especially true when we integrate APIs and HTTP into our Java applications. Let’s look at nine best practices that we can use to help ensure our HTTP communications are secure as well as when working with APIs:

• Use HTTPS instead of HTTP: If your Java web application handles sensitive, protected, or private information, you should use HTTP Secure (HTTPS) instead of HTTP when transmitting requests and responses. This will help prevent tampering and data interception. This will require you to obtain Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates for your servers.
• Do not trust input: We should always validate input to our systems to include user input and data passed to our applications programmatically. We should not assume that this data is in the right...