Almost 90 % of the people in the world are using smartphones with a variety of applications under different fields. Nowadays building mobile applications have become an easy task since a lot of simpler plug-in and platforms have been created to facilitate them. Although the app building is a cake-walk, maintaining the security of the app has become a tough task.
Preserving the privacy of a user is the first concern in any app; since highly confidential credentials like password and username are shared over the network. A strong emphasis must be made over the mobile app security since an unprotected device can cause harm for an entire system. Data like banking information, access keys, payment information can be under real threat.
Security Breaches
A recent survey on app security has revealed highly alarming results. It states that the security of 100% of the top paid apps on the Google Android platform has been hacked; 56% of popular 100 paid apps are threatened. When it comes to free apps around 73% of the Android and 53% of the iOS have been put under security threat. This is a highly pathetic condition of app world where earning the trust of the users is becoming a hard job.
Impact on business
Today all the companies are asking the employees to bring their own device to work. This is termed as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. Adapting to that culture can put the security of the entire enterprise into a questionable state. When the personal official device becomes common the security breach will become a bigger threat to the person as well his career.
Things to be considered while developing an application
1.Building the security of an app
Mobile malware causes vulnerabilities in coding corrupting mobile applications. It all occurs within a time period even before the detection of the malware existence. A copy of the entire application can be stolen by the attackers before we address it.
This copy is used by the attackers to create a similar app to the popular one and lists it in the third party servers. They compromise the unaware users that the application to be the genuine one hacking the complete device. Companies must take care to aid the developers to find the vulnerabilities and destroy them at an initial stage.
2.Finding the right run-time environment
It is significant that the device over which the application is installed must also be secure. Devices prone to fraudulent activities like rooting or jailbreaking must be kept away from accessing the business data. Providing excessive permission to the apps can also lead to malware infections. Access to basic services for example SMS or an opened Mail can straightway lead to counterfeit activities.
3.Prevention from data theft
Consider that important data related to the business is opened on a mobile device. The essential information gets stored in the accessed device. There is a chance that this contamination can be targeted by some kind of malware. This can still be a severe threat when the device is lost. To overcome this, data encryption can be a fruitful option. You may wish to think about mobile application security testing, that can ensure applications security level and identify behaviours and vulnerabilities.
4.Securing the transactions
Due to the evolving digitization, digital transaction rates are growing day by day. Although the server side is highly secure during the online payments there may be some chances of theft due to the error at the client side. The organizations must create some form of awareness to their clients and make them follow steps that can keep them away from the fraudulent.
5.Methods to safeguard the application
Encryption
Since the user data is the primary target of the hackers it can be kept on a safer side with the help of encryption methods. Unique encryption keys can be shared with the clients to safeguard the data.
Prototyping
Prototyping is a great way to create a secure application. Through this method, the developer creates a restore point at various parts of the program. Suppose if there occurs a failure of a particular functionality then the restore points can be made use of to backward and play the development process.
Upgrade frequently
By updating the application on a frequent basis we can obstruct the malware from penetrating through the application. It helps in keeping the app bug free and use the app securely.