Securing Rich Internet Applications

This past year, Forrester saw dramatic growth in the number of developers and application platform decision-makers that indicate that they are using rich Internet application (RIA) frameworks. As they shift focus from RIA platform selection to deployment, application development professionals are grappling with a number of implementation concerns, and security tops the list. Vendors have introduced some confusion to the market, but securing a rich Internet application is a matter of understanding its attack surface, how that attack surface differs from that of a traditional Web application, and where developers should concentrate limited resources in order to reduce risk. Building a secure RIA may seem like a daunting task, but there are practical steps that developers can take that will significantly lower the risk exposure for these applications.