Mobile application security is a serious concern for companies whose livelihoods rely on them. Even if a company doesn't have highly sensitive information to protect, the financial and reputational costs of the bad publicity resulting from a data breach are significant. For companies with sensitive information to protect, the risks are even greater.
4 Simple Steps to Improve Your Mobile Application Security
The more information we share online and the more connected our devices are, the greater the need for security. The term "security" is a broad one, in any case. It can mean anything from protecting your private emails, safeguarding sensitive government data, and defending your personal identity from fraud or theft.
According to a recent study, 80% of application developers reported security breaches in their apps. With the high number of mobile attacks, there is a greater need for securing mobile applications.
Researchers suggest that every mobile developer must know the basic steps for creating a secure mobile application. You can take these four steps can to improve the security of your mobile app:
Understand your app's security requirements
Mobile application developers must take responsibility for providing a safe and secure environment for users to interact with their applications. So, every mobile developer should understand security requirements to create a secure mobile application. It may sound like a lofty demand, but it's simpler.
Understanding the security requirements of your mobile application is an essential step in creating a solid security policy. You must understand the app's functional and non-functional needs (such as availability, performance, etc.). It will help you determine what security mechanisms are required to support them. Your security policy should describe how to implement each mechanism.
Code Review and Static Analysis
Code review should be performed by a peer reviewer or an external auditor, and static analysis should be done using tools such as FindBugs, PMD, and CheckStyle. In this step, you need to perform security reviews before releasing the app into production.
All code must be reviewed and verified by a peer reviewer or by an independent third party before being put into production. Good coding practices should also be adopted to reduce the incidence of security vulnerabilities. Static, dynamic, and regression testing must all be performed to ensure that the application remains secure and reliable.
Dynamic Analysis
Dynamic analysis refers to analyzing a software program's behavior while executing on a running computer system. This is done without modifying or recompiling the program or its source code. The approach enables you to test your application in real-world conditions and catch problems before they cause damage. The primary benefit of dynamic analysis is that it operates on live binaries, which means more accurate information about vulnerabilities and less interference with the application's normal execution. Dynamic analysis tools are readily available for mobile platforms such as Android and iOS (iPhone).
Lessons from a recent study by Veracode revealed that dynamic analysis tools could improve security significantly by reducing the time needed to find critical security issues by an average of 69% compared to static analysis tools deployed for the same purpose. Mobile developers who want to improve their security testing should consider dynamic analysis tools essential to their testing strategy.
Penetration Testing
Penetration testing involves evaluating an app's vulnerability to attack by an external source (hackers). Penetration testing should be performed by experts who understand the target system to identify the security loopholes in the application. It is performed at the end of the development cycle before releasing the application into the production stage.
Penetration tests are usually done by specialists in many fields, including web application security, network security, and phone/tablet app security. Each area requires a particular skill set, and only an expert in that field can identify and correct security issues. Penetration testing is a great way to test your app's weak spots and root out any potentially harmful exploits before they're used against you.
Read more about Audit Checklist ISO 50001 for Green Data Center Industry
Conclusion
During the past few years, mobile application development has gained much popularity. The number of users across all mobile operating systems is growing every day. Mobile security, however, is still an issue that is often overlooked. Developments focus more on functionality than security when apps are developed and tested. A poorly designed app is more likely to get hacked by an attacker.
Many mobile apps, such as banking or payment apps, already have stringent security and privacy requirements, but they may not traditionally be seen by the teams developing those applications. For example, end users are ultimately responsible for their own devices and the data they store. It includes how they protect their devices: if a device is lost or stolen and unencrypted data is available, the end user could face charges for unauthorized access to that data.
This is where you come in as a software developer. If you are developing a mobile app with security or privacy requirements, it's your responsibility to ensure that the app's implementation respects those requirements.
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