I know that it is crucial for ensuring that applications and systems are developed with security in mind from the initial stages. What are some steps or precautions someone can take to ensure cyber security is factored in during the early development stage to better protect those using it?
There are various approaches depending on the software but generally you would want to gather the proper requirements, design the security controls based on those requirements, implement security features, follow standard coding practices, and then develop from there. Testing would need to be done in the next phase prior to deployment.
The earlier security is considered the better. I find people often push this back to the second, third, or even last step which ends up creating all sorts of vulnerabilities. When making a software of any kind, cyber security should be focused on early and managed throughout the process to avoid any vulnerable areas.