Good places to start

Call Us Free Consultation

Web Application Security and Hardening

Vivid Concept hardens websites and web applications with passkey and MFA sign-in, patching, firewall rules, protected secrets, tested backups and an incident plan written before you need it.

Free Consultation All Web Design & Development

A senior consultant reads your request and responds within one business day.

A security engineer and a chief technology officer review a laptop with a calm abstract shield graphic in a quiet office.

Security as engineering, not a plugin

Attackers look for the easiest way in: a reused password, a plugin left unpatched, an API key sitting in a code repository, a backup that has never been restored. Our web application security work hardens websites and applications for Los Angeles businesses as an extension of our server monitoring and administration.

Every project begins with an assessment of what you run: the framework or CMS, the hosting, third-party scripts, admin accounts, the data you store and the integrations that touch it. We work from the OWASP Top 10, the reference list of web application risks, whose 2025 edition leads with broken access control, security misconfiguration and software supply chain failures.

Findings are ordered by how an attacker would use them, and the ones that matter most are fixed first. You end up with a clear security baseline that your auditor or insurer can read at a glance. Where the site collects personal data, that baseline also feeds privacy compliance for your site.

IN-HOUSE ADVANTAGE

Connected With Our Full Los Angeles Team

The developers who secure your application also write its code, so every fix goes in where the weakness starts.

What Is Included in Web Application Security

A written security assessment with findings in priority order

MFA and passkey sign-in with role-limited accounts

A dependency inventory with a patching and rollback routine

Firewall, rate limiting and bot rules configured and tested

Encrypted backups with a restore test and an incident plan

Your Web Application Security Process

  1. DiscoveryWe review your setup, audience and goals, and you receive a clear scope before work starts.
  2. DesignKey choices are settled with you before work starts.
  3. BuildBuilt by our in-house team with no handoffs.
  4. LaunchEvery change is tested and reviewed by a person before it goes live.
  5. SupportScheduled updates, backups and checks; servers monitored around the clock.

Sign-in: MFA and passkeys

Close-up of hands on a laptop showing a calm abstract shield.

Sign-in is the first control we change, because stolen and guessed credentials are a standard route into an admin panel. Every administrator gets multi-factor authentication, and passkeys are added where your platform supports them. Shared accounts are removed, roles are limited to what each person needs, and administrative actions are recorded.

A passkey is a FIDO credential built on public-key cryptography, so the server stores no shared secret. The person approves with the same unlock they use for their device, and the credential only works on your real domain, which makes it phishing-resistant in a way a password is not.

Software agents need the same discipline as people. Assistants wired in through our work on connecting AI assistants to your systems get narrowly scoped keys with every action recorded, and an AI readiness review sets clear rules for what such tools can see.

An engineer signs in with a fingerprint on a phone at a laptop, a clean desk.

Patching, dependencies and the payment page

A modern site runs on dozens of shared components. We keep an inventory of every library, plugin and package, review each update before it is applied and keep a rollback ready. Known-vulnerable components are flagged automatically in the codebase, and unused ones are removed.

Certificates, the files behind the browser's padlock, are another moving part. Their lifetimes keep getting shorter, so we automate every renewal and monitor it.

If you take card payments on your own pages, every script there has to be approved and watched under PCI DSS. We inventory those scripts and restrict them with a content security policy, a browser rule that blocks any script not on the approved list.

Routine updates and backups fall under keeping a site updated and backed up. Software that can no longer be patched is a case for replacing aging applications, rebuilt on code that can be kept current.

Firewall, rate limits and bot control

A developer updates the parts of a site on a laptop while a colleague checks a list, a printed checklist beside them.

A web application firewall filters hostile requests before they reach your code. We configure managed rules for injection and cross-site scripting, add rate limits on sign-in, search and form endpoints, and block abusive bots while search engines and legitimate integrations pass through.

Behind it, the origin server accepts traffic only from the firewall, headers such as HSTS and a content security policy are set, and error pages reveal nothing about the code underneath. Each rule is tested once it is configured.

Where your application runs in the cloud, the same controls live in infrastructure code under AWS cloud and DevOps. Where it talks to other systems, we review the keys, permissions and input validation behind connecting systems through APIs.

A security engineer and a manager review a short incident plan on a printed sheet.

Secrets, activity records, backups and an incident plan

API keys and database passwords belong in a secrets manager, never in code, and any that leaked into repository history are rotated. An activity history records sign-ins, permission changes and errors, and we keep it where an intruder cannot erase it.

Backups are encrypted, stored apart from the server and test-restored to prove they work. Recovery is the whole point of a backup, and a tested restore is the proof that it can deliver one.

The incident plan is written before it is needed. It names who decides and who is called, how the site is isolated, how credentials are rotated and what gets said to clients. Every step is rehearsed, so a bad day becomes a calm, practiced response.

Spoofed email belongs to the same picture, which is why email authentication setup is on our checklist. The code itself is written and reviewed by our software developers, part of our web design and development team.

23 Years in Los Angeles

All Web Design & Development

Administration, monitoring, security, backups and troubleshooting for the servers that run your website and applications.

Security and server updates, managed web and email hosting and domain registration, handled by the team that builds websites.

Vivid Concept designs, secures and runs applications on AWS in Los Angeles: serverless and containers, release pipelines, infrastructure as code, monitoring and cost review.

Web Application Security Questions & Answers

What are passkeys and should my staff use them?

A passkey replaces a password with a cryptographic key pair, approved by the device unlock a person already uses. It resists phishing because it only works on your real domain. Yes: administrators and staff should use passkeys wherever the platform supports them, with MFA as the fallback.

When are updates applied?

On a regular schedule: each security update is reviewed when it is released, tested on a private copy of the site and applied to the live site, with urgent fixes handled as they appear. Every update has a rollback, and we keep track of each change and report back to you.

What does a web application firewall do?

It stands in front of your site and filters requests before your code sees them: blocking known attack patterns, throttling abusive traffic and stopping hostile bots. A firewall reduces exposure without replacing patching and secure code, which is why we run all three.

What happens if the site is hacked?

We follow the incident plan: isolate the site, preserve the activity records, find the way in, restore from a clean backup, rotate every credential and close the gap. You receive a clear report on what was affected and what was fixed, ready to answer anyone who asks.

Do you run penetration tests?

Our own assessment covers configuration, access control, dependencies and the OWASP Top 10 categories. When an auditor or insurer asks for a formal penetration test, our team plans it with you, prepares a test copy of the site and fixes the findings.

Tell Us About Your Project.

Speak directly with our Los Angeles web design & development specialists, or share your project details.

Direct Los Angeles Office 323-540-4370
Call Us
  • Zero obligation or sales pressure
Project Scope Select all that apply

A direct reply within 1 business day · Zero spam

Trusted by businesses and brands since 2003

  • UCLA
  • Univision
  • USC
  • KTLA 5
  • University of Michigan
  • U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
  • and more
Call Us Free Consultation