Rescuing On-Demand Platform, Secures Data, and Improves Application Stability

A Tennessee startup created an on-demand economy application for boat rentals. The platform was founded by a solo non-technical founder who hired a junior engineer to build it. After two years, the engineer moved on, leaving the founder struggling to maintain and expand the application, which was built in an outdated language. Keiboarder, with expertise in the application's framework, stepped in to provide support.

The platform faced significant technical challenges:

• Personally Identifiable Information (PII) was stored insecurely in a Heroku Postgres database.  
• The application lacked monitoring.  
• The application was riddled with errors, negatively impacting the user experience.  

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Keiboarder took decisive action to address these issues:

• Keiboarder notified the founder of the PII security risk and provided an estimate for the necessary changes to protect customer data.  
• Keiboarder updated application libraries to reduce security vulnerabilities.  
• Keiboarder resolved dozens of previously unknown application bugs that were affecting the user experience.  
• Keiboarder implemented continuous monitoring for new errors and malicious traffic.  

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Keiboarder's intervention delivered critical improvements:

• The founder was made aware of and given a solution for a major security vulnerability concerning PII storage.  
• The application's security posture was improved by updating application libraries.  
• The application's stability and user experience were enhanced through the resolution of numerous bugs.  
• Continuous monitoring was established to proactively identify and address new issues.

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Keiboarder's work led to significant positive business outcomes:

• Reduced Risk: Keiboarder's identification and remediation of the PII storage issue mitigated the risk of a data breach and potential legal and financial repercussions. ‍
• Improved Reliability: Resolving application bugs and implementing monitoring improved the application's reliability and user experience, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction and retention. ‍
• Enhanced Maintainability: Updating application libraries likely made the application easier to maintain and update in the future.

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This case study offers important insights for technology leaders:

• Security is Paramount: Protecting sensitive user data is crucial. Applications must be designed and maintained with security as a top priority. ‍
• Legacy Systems Pose Risks: Applications built with outdated technologies can present security vulnerabilities and maintenance challenges. Modernizing these systems is often necessary. ‍
• Monitoring is Essential: Continuous monitoring of applications is vital for identifying and addressing errors, security threats, and performance issues. ‍
• Proactive Intervention is Key: Addressing technical debt and security vulnerabilities proactively can prevent major problems and protect the business.

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