Mobile App Security Tips: Creating Opportunities out of Risks

Mobile App Security Tips: Creating Opportunities out of Risks

The advent of smartphones have revolutionized the way business is done nowadays. Not to forget its impactful assimilation into our lifestyle cutting across geographical barriers, economic strata, age and gender. Simply speaking, the world has indeed gone Mobile.

The World Goes Mobile – Opportunities & Risk

Looking at the larger picture, mobility has in many ways inspired an unprecedented growth in the application development scenario. With more than a million mobile applications available in the app market - across platforms such as iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows, the potential benefits of using these mobile platforms and applications for every aspects of business has been welcomed by all.

Moreover, the advent of mobility has also in many ways helped drive higher customer satisfaction and sales, created stronger dialogue with customers, reduced costs, increased operational efficiencies, led to stronger partner collaborations, and even influenced greater employee productivity. But amidst all the good things happening courtesy the mobile revolution, one cannot deny the rising threat and the mobile app security risks it brings along.

Mobile App Security – Evaluating the Risks

As we open the doors to discussion on mobile app security, let me put forward the 2 main categories - Malicious Functionality and Vulnerabilities. The first one refers to the list of unwanted and dangerous mobile code behaviors that are stealthily placed in a Trojan app, and you as the user is tricked into installing it. It happens when a user installs a hidden spyware, phishing UI, or unauthorized premium dialing, etc., presuming it to be a game or utility.

I. Malicious Functionality

  • UI Impersonation
  • Activity monitoring
  • Data retrieval
  • System modification (rootkit, APN proxy configuration)
  • Unauthorized dialing, SMS, and payments
  • Unauthorized network connectivity (exfiltration or command & control)
  • Logic

On the other hand, mobile security vulnerabilities refers to the errors in design or implementation that reveal the mobile device data to interception and retrieval by attackers. It also carries the maximum risk of exposing your mobile device or the cloud applications used from the device to unauthorized access.

II. Vulnerabilities

  • Hard-coded password/keys
  • Insecure sensitive data storage
  • Sensitive data leakage
  • Insecure sensitive data transmission

The Mobile Application Code - Security Stack

The unprecedented rate of growth in smartphone adoption, along with an explosion in mobile application development have led to a precarious situation where private and sensitive information is being pushed to the edge at an alarming rate. With the universalization of smartphone mobile device and its overlap with common operating system models, the mobile device code security model do call for some distinct points of differentiation.

Yet again, the mobile code security stack can be broken up into four distinct layers - infrastructure layer, going upward by the hardware layer, operating system layer and application layer. Here, each defined layer of the security stack is responsible for the security of its defined components. Although, the lower layers of the stack ensure the appropriate safety of the upper layers.

A glance into this concept-based model allows the design of a certain mobile security mechanism to focus on a single specific area of concern without disbursing the resources required to analyze all layers that support its current location within the stack.

10 Tips to Safeguard from Mobile App Security Risks

1. Comprehend the procedure of enabling high security features and disabling of insecure ones. Monitoring and control of all high security features a must, so as to ensure the security of your channel. This is important because, one looking to break mobile app security is more interested in breaching it rather than caring to understand what your system was intended to be used for.

2. Make an attempt to understand the differences and limitations of each platform from device to device and OS to OS. This can be done effectively by taking into consideration the different use cases, limitations, and additional capabilities that mobile applications offer. Also, get familiar with encryption data, passwords, and even geo-location data for appropriate controlling and distribution to authorized recipients.

3. Platform-specific differences has to be taken into consideration, as diverse operating system revisions have diverse features. For instance, you will find the different Android versions hugely different from each other; also it is equally important to account for any changes in security introduced by these multiple versions.

4. Consider the integration of backend systems for security and risk assessments. As such backend systems are just as vulnerable to attacks as frontend systems, and thereby best practices involve including backend systems in any security or risk evaluations.

5. Understand the differences between the backend infrastructure of mobile apps and those of traditional applications. You will find transport mechanisms and authentication to be entirely different on the mobile platform.

6. Make a point to understand how and where your app will be connecting to the network. Since the mobile device has to be connected to the Internet in some way (normally via cellular networks or Wi-Fi), using a VPN as a substitute of public, non-encrypted Wi-Fi network will definitely offer additional security.

7. Ensure protection of sensitive information in transit. It is important that you know what data you are going to be transmitting on the network and how it will be protected. Best practices for instance, recommend encrypting communications like initial login data.

8. Storage and data usage should be followed carefully and handled with care. Do not store any sensitive data if it can be best avoided, as storing unnecessary ‘sensitive’ data adds to your risk level. At best use encrypted data containers, key chain, or secure areas; it is also recommended that you use cookies instead of stored passwords and minimize logs.

9. Privacy and information security regulations are frequently updated, mainly in the Payment Card Industry (PCI) requirements. Always stay aware about the data you are using, gathering, storing, and transmitting, and assess if any regulations are impacting data security. Always seek answers to: who has access to the data (if) stored on the backend? Is the data stored on the phone encrypted?

10. Last but not the least, do not hesitate or forget to test! Hire a professional or someone knowledgeable in web application security to help you with the testing. It’ll be rather irrational to consider a mobile application as a mobile version of a web page, since this can lead to poorly coded mobile apps and add to vulnerabilities.

VITEB as a prominent player in the mobile app development market, take the cause of mobile app security very seriously. Our team of expert mobile app developers have been taking appropriate measures in integrating sophisticated mobile app security codes so as to evaluate vulnerabilities, mitigate risks, and ensure mobile app security. Our dominance in development of Mobile POS app and banking apps is an indication of our accomplishment in this area.

Have you ensured security for your mobile application?

If you are looking for similar mobile apps get in touch with me at josh@viteb.com OR visit http://www.viteb.com/mobile-apps-development

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