My programming teacher was full of useful acronyms when it came to teaching us things. KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid), DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself), IPO (Input-Process-Output), and probably one of the most useful, if understated:
GIGO = Garbage In, Garbage Out
Those four letters are probably some of the most ignored four (OK, three) letters in programming. Most programmers assume wrongly that their users are not out to get them and destroy precious data, but they are. Fortunately most users don’t know that they are trying to destroy the precious balance that most web apps have, and unfortunately most web apps don’t care. Programmers then have to worry about the rest of the users that are trying to abuse the system, and then the users who are maliciously attacking the system. By ignoring GIGO, you end up with a sad list like the OWASP Top 10.
