An organization recently updated its security policy to include the following statement: Regular expressions are included in source code to remove special characters such as $, |, ;. &, `, and ? from variables set by forms in a web application. Which of the following best explains the security technique the organization adopted by making this addition to the policy?

The organization adopted input validation. This technique ensures that data entered by users into a web application conforms to expected formats and types, preventing malicious input. By removing special characters like $ or ;, the policy aims to neutralize potential injection attacks (e.g., SQL injection, cross-site scripting) that rely on these characters to manipulate application behavior or access data. Identifying embedded keys is about finding hardcoded credentials, not sanitizing input. Code debugging is a process of finding and fixing errors in code during development, not a security control for user input. Static code analysis involves examining code without executing it to find vulnerabilities, but the policy statement describes a runtime mechanism for handling input, not an analysis method.