Workshop Overview
You have now built your MVP, what's next?
Modern app development has never been faster. With AI-assisted coding, Supabase, Expo, Firebase, and low-code tools, many teams can ship a working product in days — sometimes hours.
However, speed often comes at the cost of security awareness.
This community workshop is designed for founders, indie hackers, and developers building vibe-coded projects who want to understand practical cybersecurity risks and realistic prevention strategies — without enterprise complexity or fear-based messaging.
The focus is on shared learning, real scenarios, and defensive patterns that are appropriate for MVPs and early-stage products.
Why This Session Matters
Most early-stage applications are not “hacked” in sophisticated ways.
Instead, they are quietly abused through:
- Hotlinking and asset scraping
- Bot traffic draining storage and egress
- Over-exposed APIs and mismanaged secrets
- Public URLs assumed to be “safe enough”
These issues often surface only after usage increases — typically as unexpected downtime or rising cloud costs.
This session aims to help builders recognize these risks early and apply lightweight but effective protections.
Topics We Will Cover
1. Hotlinking and Bandwidth Abuse
- How hotlinking works and why it is commonly overlooked
- Real examples of storage and egress abuse
- Practical mitigation using signed URLs, headers, and CDN controls
2. Securing the Frontend–Backend Communication Path
- What it means when your Supabase or backend URL is public
- What attackers can realistically do with that information
- How to introduce a secured request layer without slowing development
- Common architectural patterns for web and mobile apps
3. API Secrets and Key Management
- Why “not exposing it on the frontend” is often insufficient
- How secrets are extracted from apps in practice
- Safer approaches to handling API keys in modern stacks
4. Obfuscation: Purpose and Limitations
- What obfuscation does and does not protect
- When obfuscation is appropriate for frontend and mobile apps
- How to use obfuscation as a supporting measure, not a primary defense
Additional Areas of Discussion (Time Permitting)
Depending on participant interest, we may also explore:
- Bot abuse and automated traffic patterns
- Rate limiting as both a security and cost-control mechanism
- Signed URLs and expiring access strategies
- Mobile application security realities
- Establishing a reasonable security baseline for MVPs
Who This Workshop Is For
- Founders preparing to launch or scale an MVP
- Developers using Supabase, and AI-assisted tools
- Indie hackers and small teams seeking practical safeguards
- Anyone who wants to avoid preventable security-related costs
No prior cybersecurity background is required.
What You Will Take Away
Participants will leave with:
- A clearer understanding of common attack vectors targeting early-stage apps
- Practical steps to reduce risk without over-engineering
- A security mindset focused on risk reduction and sustainability, not perfection
This session is intended to be informative, open, and discussion-friendly, encouraging participants to learn from real examples and from one another.