Isn’t it shocking that users are still concerned about their privacy even after downloading and using millions of mobile apps?
Now, the question is, how would you establish trust in your applications?
Recently, organisations have started prioritising security in application development by using methods like two-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, password protection, etc. Moreover, there are more best practices to develop secure mobile apps which can provide you with the utmost safety from attackers.
Using these best practices, business owners can simultaneously avoid cybersecurity threats and generate revenue. This blog explains eight best practices for mobile app security to preserve the safety of both users and the company’s data.
Why is it Important to Develop Secure Mobile Apps
The rise of cyber threats is evident from the compromised security of user’s personal information. Likewise, people are using mobile applications extensively in their day-to-day lives. Considering this case, the security of mobile applications becomes a pressing matter, especially when users share financial details with organisations.
As per experts, 77% of financial apps have a possibility of data breaches with at least one serious vulnerability. Read also – The benefits of mobile app development for businesses
Consequently, unsecured applications are more likely to be interrupted by malicious attacks. This makes application security crucial for business, and keeping a secured mobile app architecture can eradicate security threats. This practical approach can reveal the weaknesses to a point where they can resolved with appropriate measures for proactively dealing with them.
Surprisingly, many businesses still overlook application security, negatively impacting their reputation. When exploited with vulnerabilities, your applications open doors for third-party malware systems that can access confidential information, posing a significant business risk. This is why a web and app development agency has proper security measures in place by realising it is necessary and not a mere feature or benefit.
8 Best Practices for Securing Mobile Apps
The security of mobile applications is a critical aspect of app development, and choosing the right platform for your mobile app development is crucial. App developers should know different strategies to eliminate security risks by incorporating best practices before deploying the application. Here are some best practices for building secured systems.
1. Code Encryption
The application development is based on the built-in architecture containing the sourced code. There are high chances of security vulnerabilities arising from the code itself. This requires developers to encrypt the sourced code as a part of secure mobile app reverse engineering prevention to ensure fewer engineering attacks. This can make the code unreadable by unauthorised users, making it a robust initiative for defending your application.
In addition, while handling code, you should validate the sourced code with a private key or a code-signing certificate. This can validate your code that it has come from a trusted sender. They are valid for only three years, so you need to renew them regularly to keep verifying your code with this method.
2. Leverage Penetration Testing
Detecting loopholes and bugs before every deployment is an absolute necessity. Before checking the application’s usability and functionality, testing the app’s security can set your system free from bugs, damaging your app at the later stages. Doing penetration testing is deemed a best practice for Android developers to build a mobile app without security bugs. Likewise, businesses must ensure that the code is tested thoroughly multiple times before it creates havoc for your mobile app.
Read our related blog, Best Practices for Testing Your Mobile Application, if you have doubts regarding the testing of the application.
To get off the testing load, you can hire a professional IT strategy consulting company to assist you with successful penetration testing. With experts onboard, you have the peace of mind that your code is safe and will not likely be exploited by any third party.
3. Secured Data Transmit
While transferring sensitive information from your server to the client’s server, you have to ensure secured data is in transit. You can use an SSL or VPN tunnel for this transfer so that there are no privacy leaks or data theft. The Transport Layer Security (TLS), evolved from SSL, can act as a mobile app permissions control system that encrypts your data with a cryptography public key. It can help cross-check the data with a digital certificate, creating chances to eradicate potential security issues.
The unstructured data is stored in the local file system to effectively employ the mobile app sandboxing method. You can implement file-level encryption practices for facilitating mobile app encryptions to facilitate security in the sandbox environment.
4. Ensuring High-Level Authentication
Security breaches are the result of a lack of authentication. This often calls for strong high-level authentication through strong passwords or multi-factor authentication for keeping sensitive information safe. These can be best practices for application security that need to be reviewed occasionally. You also have to ensure that changes are made to the passwords for secured application logins. IT professionals suggest utilizing AI and Machine Learning in mobile app development.
Businesses can use biometric authentications for more sensitive apps to strengthen their security. Encourage your users today to use fingerprints, facial recognition or retina scans to take the security of mobile apps to the next level.
5. Minimise Storage of Sensitive Data
Where there is sensitive data, there is a security risk. If you are storing sensitive data, you must ensure you are meeting mobile app compliance with privacy. Store your data with an encrypted data container rather than storing it locally. Also, you can allow an auto-delete feature in your system to delete sensitive data files automatically, which no longer need consideration.
Further, if you habitually store security keys in your device, you better work on it. Instead, you can use store containers for those security keys by leveraging the hybrid cloud approach.
6. Use Cryptography Tools and Techniques
Using the latest security algorithms is essential to develop secure mobile apps. Hackers have become smart enough to crack the older versions of the encryption protocols, so you have to add an extra layer of security through the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
Cryptography techniques such as hashing, digital signatures, and secure communication protocols can act as a shield for protecting users’ sensitive information. Mobile app updates and patch management systems can give you a vision of the threats and vulnerabilities that can interrupt the system.
7. Use Authorized APIs Only
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are the channels for flowing data between cloud spaces and client storage. Keeping it safe and in an authorised manner will reduce cyber attacks. This can be ensured with secure error handling and limited access to APIs for functionality for developing a safe coding environment.
When you are getting your application from a custom software consultancy, it is recommended to use authorised APIs. Your data can be at risk if your API is not authorised on Android or iOS platforms.
8. Deploy Tamper Detection
Lastly, tamper detections can be used as security triggers for facilitating alerts whenever a malicious code enters the system. With successful tamper detection deployment, you can ensure that code does not function, which means you know about the activities of attackers. This practice accelerates secure open-source software usage wherein real-time alerts are actioned upon unauthorised access.
For instance, AWS Lambda, one of the AWS cloud services, can provide tampering injection alerts. It can be a holistic approach for businesses to check the integrity of the code through periodic verifications.
With widespread usage, the security of mobile applications is an important topic that cannot be overlooked. This blog covers many aspects of application security and how our suggested best practices can help you develop secure mobile apps for your business.
At Fastcurve, we firmly believe in keeping the app development safer from attackers. Keeping in mind the reliability and integrity of our applications, we, along with our specialists, can deliver solutions well-versed in industry security standards.
