In this article, we will explore what are the essential mobile app security practices that you ought to implement after the development is finalized.

Over the last decade, we all have witnessed how the mobile app development industry has grown but so have cybercrimes. And these crimes have led us to a stage where it is not possible to submit an app to Play Store or App Store without taking certain measures to secure it.

However, getting towards what the security measures entail, we first need to understand why there is a need for taking these actions and what are the potential app security issues that plague the mobile app development industry. For a real-life estimate, let us look at the facts:

There is still more to mobile app security than safeguarding them against malware and threats. Let us first identify some of the OWASP mobile app security threats to understand the security measures better.

Why do we need Mobile App Security: Potential Threats & Their Solutions

The threats that present themselves in the app development world although are malicious, can be solved with simple steps to securing a mobile application. Let us take a look at what are the major mobile app security issues.

1. Faulty server controls:

The communications that take place between the app and user outside the mobile phone device happen via servers. And such servers are primary targets of hackers throughout the world. The main reason behind the vulnerability of a server is because sometimes developers overlook the necessary server-side security into account. This may happen due to a lack of knowledge about security considerations for mobile applications, small budgets for security purposes, or the vulnerabilities caused due to cross-platform development.  

Solution:

The most crucial step in safeguarding your servers is to scan your apps with the help of automated scanners. These scanners can, otherwise, be used by hackers to dig out vulnerabilities in your apps and exploit them. Automated scanners will surface the common issues and bugs which are easy to resolve.

2. The absence of Binary protection:

This is also one of the prime OWASP app security issues to address because if there is a lack of Binary protection for a mobile app, any hacker or an adversary can easily reverse engineer the app code to introduce malware. They can also redistribute a pirated application of the same and inject it with a threat also. All of this can lead to critical issues such as data theft and damage to brand image and resultantly revenue loss.

Solution:

To safeguard Binary files, it is important to deploy binary hardening procedures. As a part of this procedure, binary files are analyzed and accordingly modified to protect them against common mobile app security threats. This procedure fixes the legacy code without involving the source code at all. It is crucial to ensure security coding for the detection of jailbreaks, checksum controls, debugger detection control, and certificate pinning while working on mobile app security processes.

3. Data Storage Insecurity:

Another big loophole that is common in Mobile app security is the absence of a safe data storage system. In fact, it is common for mobile app developers to rely upon client storage for internal data. However, during the possession of a mobile device by a rival, this internal data can be very easily accessed and used or manipulated. This can lead to several crimes like identity theft or PCI (external policy violation).

Solution:

One of the app security measures to consider here is to build an additional encryption layer over the OS’s base-level encryption. This gives a tremendous boost to data security.

4. Inadequate protection for Transport layer:

The transport layer is the pathway through which data transfer takes place between the client and the server. If the right mobile app security standards are not introduced at this point, any hacker can gain access to internal data to steal or modify it. This leads to severe crimes like identity thefts and frauds.

Solution:

To reinforce transport layer security, you should incorporate SSL Pinning in iOS and Android apps. Along with this, you can use industry-standard cipher suites instead of regular ones. Additionally, avoiding the exposure of user’s session ID because of mixed SSL sessions, alerting the user in case of an invalid certificate, using SSL versions of third-party analytics are common practices that can savethe users from a dangerous breach of security.

5. Unintended Leakage of data:

Unintended data leakage happens when critical mobile applications are stored in vulnerable locations on the mobile device. For example, an app is stored where it can easily get accessed by other apps or devices which ultimately results in the data breach of your app and unauthorized data usage.

Solution:

Monitoring common data leakage points such as logging, app background, caching, Browser cookie objects, and HTML5 data storage.

Besides these 5 mobile development security threats, there are some other commonly occurring roadblocks in the way of building secure mobile apps. Here they are:

• Absence of multi-factor authentication – The process provides multiple layers of security before letting a person inside the application. It could be answering a personal question, OTP, SMS configuration, or other measures. The absence of multifactor authentication can lead to several issues which makes it a crucial part of answering how to make an app secure. 
• Inability to encrypt properly – A important element of mobile application security best practices is ensuring proper encryption. The inability of it can lead to code theft, intellectual property theft, privacy violation, among multiple other issues. 
• Malicious code Injection – User-generated content such as forms is often overlooked as a threat. Suppose a user adds in their id and password, the app then communicated with the server-side data to authenticate the information. Now the apps which do not restrict the character a user inputs open themselves to the risk of injecting code to access the server.
• Reverse engineering – It is every secure mobile application development nightmare. The approach can be used to show how an app works in the backend and reveal the encryption algorithms while modifying the source code, etc. 
• Insecure data storage – insecure data storage can happen in multiple places inside an app – cookies, binary data store, SQL database, etc. If a hacker gets access to the database or device, they can alter legitimate apps to take out information to the machines.

After seeing the general threats which plague all the mobile applications and some of the Best mobile app security practices to follow for avoiding these issues, let us move on to the specifics about the Android and iOS mobile application security.

How to Make Android Apps Secure?

Some of the effective Android app security best practices to opt are:-

Encryption of data on External Storage –

Generally, the internal storage capacity of a device is limited. And this drawback often coerces users to use external devices such as hard disk and flash drives for safekeeping of the data. And this data, at times, consists of sensitive and confidential data as well. Since the data stored on the external storage device is easily accessible by all the apps of the device, it is very important to save the data in an encrypted format. One of the most widely used encryption algorithms by mobile app developers is AES or Advanced Encryption Standard.

Using Internal Storage for Sensitive Data –

All the Android Applications have an internal storage directory. And the files stored in this directory are extremely secure because they use MODE_PRIVATE mode for file creation. Simply put, this mode ensures that the files of one particular app cannot be accessed by other applications saved on the device. Thus, it is one of the mobile app authentication best practices to focus upon.

Using HTTPS –

The communications that take place between the app and the server ought to be over an HTTPS connection. Numerous Android Users often are connected to several open WiFi networks in public areas and using HTTP instead of HTTPS can leave the device vulnerable to many malicious hotspots which can easily alter the contents of HTTP traffic and make the device’s apps behave unexpectedly.

Using GCM instead of SMS –

In the time when Google Cloud Messaging or GCM did not exist, SMS was used in order to push data from servers to apps but today, GCM is used largely. But if you still have not made the switch from SMS to GCM, you must. This is because SMS protocol is neither safe nor encrypted. On top of it, SMS can be accessed and read by any other app on the user’s device. GCM communications are authenticated by registration tokens which are regularly refreshed on the client-side and they are authenticated using a unique API key on the server-side.

Other major mobile app development security best practices can include, Validation of User input, Avoiding the need for personal data, and usage of ProGuard before publishing the app. The Idea is to secure app users from as much malware as possible.

How to Make iOS Apps Secure?

Some of the iOS app security best practices to follow are:-

Storage of Data –

To greatly simplify your app’s architecture and improve its security, the best way is to store app data in memory instead of writing it on disk or sending it to a remote server. Although if storing the data locally is your sole option, there are multiple ways to go:- 

Keychain:

The best place to store small amounts of sensitive data which doesn’t need frequent access is Keychain. Data that is stored in keychains is managed by the OS but is not accessible by any other application. – Caches: If your data does not need to be backed up on iCloud or iTunes then you can store the data in the Caches directory of the application sandbox. – Defaults system: The defaults system is a convenient method for storing large amounts of data.

Networking security :

Apple is known for its security and privacy policies and for years, it has worked to reach this level. A few years ago, Apple had introduced App Transport Security which enforces third-party mobile apps to send network requests over a more secure connection, i.e., HTTPS.

Security of Sensitive Information –

The majority of mobile apps use sensitive user data such as address book, location, etc. But as a developer, you need to make sure that all the information that you’re asking the user for is, in fact, necessary to access and more importantly, to store. So, if the information you require can be accessed through a native framework, then it is redundant to duplicate and store that information.

We have now seen both Android and iOS mobile app security Practices for a Hack-Proof App. But no development can be so easy as it is written about. There are always certain challenges that are faced during a process. Let’s move forward and learn about the challenges which are faced and solved by almost every top app development companies in USA.

Challenges Associated With Mobile App Security

There is a proven record of how vulnerable mobile apps can be if not enough measures are taken for their security from external malware. Following are the challenges that can arise anytime if the mobile app security testing is not completed as per the requirement.

Device Fragmentation –

There are essential processes to be followed before the release of an application on the app stores. It is necessary to diversity of devices that cover different resolutions, functionalities, features, and limitations into your mobile app testing strategies. Detection of Device specific vulnerabilities can put the app developers one step ahead in app security measures. Not only devices but different versions of popular OS’s is an important step to cover before the app release to cover all the possible loopholes. 

Weak Encryptions –

In the case of weak encryption, a mobile device is vulnerable to accepting data from any available device. Attackers with malware are in constant search for an open-end in public mobile devices and your app can be that open end if you do not follow a strong suit of the encryption process. So, investing your efforts into strong encryption is also one of the finest ways to make a hack-proof mobile app.

Weaker hosting controls –

It happens mostly during the development of a business’s first mobile app, which usually leaves the data exposed to the server-side systems. Therefore, the servers which are being used to host your app must have enough app security measures to avoid any unauthorized users from accessing important data.

Checklist for Mobile Application Security Guidelines

There are a number of things that every mobile app development company follows when they build secure applications. Here is a checklist that we commonly follow – 

• Use server-side authentication 
• Use cryptographic algorithms 
• Ensure user inputs meet check standards
• Create threat algorithms to back data 
• Obsfucation to stop reverse engineering

There are many ways to make a hack proof mobile app, through a mobile app security audit, against the attacks from unknown sources and no amount of security measures can ever be enough. Looking into mobile app development security best practices is one way to go about it. Today, the digital world is out in the open for everyone’s use and no user is ever safe enough from malware and security breaches but these measures ensure that your personal data is safe in your digital devices.

The post The Mobile App Security Best Practices To Ensure a Hack-Proof App appeared first on Appinventiv.

The incident came into the picture a few days back when their CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made a post throwing a light on the data breach. And since then, the case of app security has come into the focus.

Uber’s not the first case of data breach, there are a number of times when the users’ personal data has been compromised: an event that has made people wary of using mobile apps that ask for their information.

Here’s a visual to show the stance of mobile app users in light of App Security Concerns –

See how gruesome it is?

But, you can prevent your app from becoming the next case study cautioning brands to get their app security game on point.

Here’s how –

1. Protect your App from the Scratch

A number of vulnerabilities exist in the app’s source code, but the majority of the app companies focus just on the network part while focusing on implementing mobile app security best practices. There are so many places that can be the groundwork of data breaches – coding error, code testing, etc.

Here are the things that you can do to safeguard your app from the day of its existence –

• Protect the code of your app with encryption. There are two ways to do it – minification and obfuscation, but they are not enough. It is advised that you stick with well supported algos that are combined with the API encryption.
• Run source code scanning on your codes, frequently

The sign of a secure code is that it remains secures even after being ported between operating systems and devices. Creating an agile code helps on this front, immensely.

2. Secure the Network connection from the Backend

The cloud servers that are being accessed by your app’s API needs to have proper security measures to prevent unauthorized access and protect users’ data. The API verification should be so in place that zero sensitive information passes from the client to app database or server.

To make this step a success, it’s imperative that your backend development process is robust.

Here’s how to secure the network connection

• Create encrypted containers for storing documents and data
• Conduct a series of vulnerability assessments and penetration testing of your network to make sure that the data is protected.
• Encrypt database and connections with SSL, VPN, and TLS for added security
• Apply Federation – the measure, which spread resources across servers so that they are all not in one place, while separating the key resources from the users.

3. Have Authentication, Identification, and Authorization Process in Place

Here’s how to make your app identified, authenticated, and authorized

• Ensure that the APIs which your app uses are just the ones that are needed to function and only give access to the parts that are in focus, instead of all the app functionalities.
• There are a number of tools and protocols that you can make use of and be sure to follow when your app is in its development stage. Here they are –
  • JSON Web Token – The lightweight tool is used for encrypting data exchange, its no fuss implementation makes it ideal for mobile apps.
  • OpenID Connect – It’s a protocol that allows the users to reuse their credentials across different domains with the help of an ID token, to save their time in registering and signing up with the same information every time.
  • OAuth2 – The protocol is used to manage secure connection through one time user specific token. Upon installing the framework in the authorization server it will let you grant your users permission between the end users and client by collecting credentials such as 2 factor SMS questions.

4. Do a comprehensive set of tests

Unlike a web app, majority of mobile app data is saved locally, and with the data being on a device whose bandwidth, performance, and quality varies, the risk of it getting hacked is much greater.
Along with the instability factor in devices, there are also some apps that tend to release data without users knowing it, like their gender, age, device usage, etc.

Ways you can ensure the customer data is secure on the app –

• With the help of file level encryption, you can protect the data on file-by-file basis. It’s one of the ways to encrypt the at-rest data so that it’s not read when intercepted.
• Tools like Appcelator platform ensures that mobile data which are stored locally are safe.

Key management should be your priority. The basis of a strong algorithm is its equally stronger certificate and keys.

5. Planned API Security Strategy

As mobile development is tightly knit with APIs, a major part of making an app is secure is dependent on making its API secure. APIs transmit data between the applications, cloud, and among a number of users. All the involved parties need to be identified and authorized in order to see and use the data. APIs are the foundation stone of functionality, content, and data, so ensuring that it is secured can take you long way.

There are three stages in API that you will need to take care of, namely – Identification, Authentication, and Authorization.

Let’s look at the elements of all the three below –

Identification

The first part of process, identification hacks can be prevented through implementing API keys. These keys are random, unique identifiers which eliminate the need of passwords.
While you can safeguard when the data is seen using the API keys, you cannot decide that it is seen by someone who was supposed to see it.

Authentication

It is the process that guarantees that the information is seen by someone who was meant to view it. At this stage, you set usernames and passwords to ensure that the system gets an extra level of security.

Authorization

This step answers the question – What can one do with the API. The steps to secure this process includes 2 factor authorization, tokens, and one time passwords.

6. Test the App

Irrespective of whether your app is hybrid, native, or web app, it should be tested for not just from the usability and functionality aspect but also from Security. There are a number of steps you have to follow to ensure that your app is quality assured to ensure it’s secure.

Here are the ways you can ensure your app is tested for security –

• Penetration Testing – It means probing the network and system for finding weaknesses.
• Use emulators to test how the app performs in a simulated environment.
• Test the authorization and authentication, session management, and data security issues in detail.

So these were the 6 ways that you could employ in your app development process to ensure that yours is not the one in limelight.

Ensure that you incorporate well in time, while you have time.

The post Uber Data Breach: How to prevent your app from incidents like these appeared first on Appinventiv.

“According to a survey, nearly 15-30 free, popular Android mobile apps secretly sent the sensitive information of users (contact numbers, voice mails, pictures, etc.) to remote servers. While, about two-thirds of the apps handled data in an enigmatic manner.”

As people use applications for performing almost every task, including banking, shopping, and booking, it is developer’s responsibility to look into the security matter. And thereafter, provide a convenient and secure user experience.

The mobile app developers enforce many advanced data protection mechanisms these days. However, not all remember about safeguarding less obvious elements that take part in data processing. If you are one among them, go through the following points to understand the concept of unintended data leakage and avoid data leaks.

What is a Data Leak?

The term can be utilized to describe information that is moved electronically or physically. Data leakage threats normally happen through the web and email, however it can likewise occur by data storage devices, for example, optical media, USB keys, and PCs and laptops.

A data leak is an unauthorized transmission of sensitive data which is accidentally exposed on the Internet or to an external destination with any other form including lost hard drives or laptops.

A data leak doesn’t need a cyber attack as it usually occurs from bad data security practices or accidental activity or inaction by an individual.

Data Leakage is also known as low and slow data theft. It has become a big issue for android data security, and the harm caused to any organization, inspite of its size or industry, can be serious and loss making. From declining income to a tainted reputation or enormous financial penalties to devastating lawsuits, this is a danger that any association will need to shield themselves from.

There’s no denying the fact that with the increasing adoption of mobile apps, malicious hackers have also improved the ways to hack mobile apps and steal user sensitive information. Meaning, both Android and iOS mobile apps are involved with popular data breach cases – be it Facebook Cambridge Analytica or the Dashdoor data breach case.

Below are the list of ways that will provide answers on how to avoid data leakage.

Let’s begin!

Ways to Prevent Data Leaks in an Android App

1. Use encryption keys

Data processing is a crucial sensitive part of the application development life cycle. It enables availability and faster processing of data. But since it contains sensitive information, it demands the need to be secured. According to the mobile app developers from various regions like android app developers in texas, a compromise with the security in data processing is the most common source of potential android data leaks. Wondering how? Well, as you might be familiar, sensitive data should be encrypted. But to encrypt any data and use it further, you need encryption keys provided by the app.

Many times, the keys are saved on the device, which is one of the reasons behind leakage of data. Actually, the encryption keys are saved in plain text form. If the hackers get access to such an encrypted database, they can easily find the public key and decrypt the database. Surprisingly, this is so easy that one can do it using public keys available online. This is a question about the concept of encryption and secure user experience.

To make it certain that the encryption keys are handled safely, the android application development company should use a set of Android data encryption tools called KeyStore. It is a class designed for storing and managing encryption keys with the most secure algorithms used across the globe.

“This tool of Android security tools not just protect the password, but other sensitive data as well.”

According to our experts, it handles everything in such a way that it is difficult for the hackers or unauthorized/spam software to get the information. On top of it, it provides the best performance and upgrade the data processing speed, provided all the encryption keys are handled wisely.

2. Implement HTTPs

Usually, HTTP protocol is used for transmission of data between a mobile app and a server. The data transferred using this protocol is not encrypted. So, it is better to use its encrypted version, i.e., HTTPs. Based on TLS/ SSL asymmetric cryptography, HTTPs renders a fairly higher level of security. However, it is necessary to be implemented with accurate care.

To encrypt communication via HTTPs, the server needs to have the facility to handle HTTPs connection. When this condition is applied, the client is supposed to send a request to the address beginning with ‘https’ protocol. During this, the server and client build parameters of the encryption in a process, namely handshake. On performing handshaking correctly, the communication is encrypted.

As per our experts, it is essential to fully implement the HTTPs connection. This is because someone might misuse the content in case of a man-in-the-middle attack. In this attack, a node (program or device) is kept in between the android app and the server which decrypts the connection just like the app, read it and re-encrypts it again. Neither the server and app, nor the user come to know about this mishap, and the sensitive data will get misused.

To prevent this situation, a developer can add a certificate inside the application code such that the app can verify the server certificate. This way, the Android mobile application will receive a response only from a server with a certain certificate.

“As per the top android app development services, the certificate pinning technique is not only a party of Android security mechanisms but should be employed on each client app responsible for encrypted communication using HTTPs connection. Without this, one can easily break the data encryption.”

3. Prevent data caching

Have you ever come across the situation when you have accidentally pasted the password into the login section, or sent it in a private message? Such things are common to observe, thanks to data caching.

Data Caching mechanism is to make the user’s life easier. The two common types of this mechanism are User’s dictionaries and Clipboard. The User’s dictionary suggests words on the basis of the user’s earlier word choice, while the Clipboard allows transferring data between mobile apps by saving it in the system memory temporarily.

These elements make the user’s experience comfortable and efficient. That’s why various developers from different areas like android app developers in Texas include them in their Android app development strategy, regardless of the fact that it involves risk. As this procedure works automatically, it saves all the information without categorizing the content. Thus, passwords and other sensitive information are also saved as text in the clipboard and dictionary. Now, if the android device user goes to some app where the keyboard stimulates to replace the typed content with the password and he clicks okay, the password will be shared across the Internet as a searched phrase (search logs, search result or caching algorithm). Thus, the data security is compromised.

The best way to prevent this situation, as per the best android app development companies, is to set the appropriate input types (like ‘password’ types). And this way, block auto-caching as well as refrain copying the content to the clipboard.

4. Consider application logs

Other essential elements to consider in developing an Android mobile application is Logs. The Application logs are useful for the app professionals while analyzing the work of algorithms behind the data processing inside the applications. They can ensure that the sequence of processing is right or the results are desirable. But, unfortunately, the logs might contain sensitive information like passwords or access tokens and are stored locally on devices. They are publicly readable and accessible by many other apps installed on the same device if it works on an OS version lower than Android 4.2. The best method to deal with this situation is to ensure that your Android app does not use logs. Though they are helpful, the developers do not need them for the production version of the app.

5. Latest android development guidelines

Currently Google has begun carrying out strict rules and guidelines to make sure that any application that goes live on the Play Store is spam free. Thus, remaining up-to-date with the recent information and applying them into your application development process is again a helpful strategy for prevention of data leakage in an android app.

You can likewise prevent information leakage in your Android application by investing intensely in quality affirmation and guaranteeing that your application is updated time to time.

6. System components

All information and business logic depends on system components included in the Android SDK. It’s not clear for everybody that these components require extra protection. Unique security needs, specifically, these components of applications, which constitute the purported IPC (Inter-Process Communication) endpoints. This implies that those endpoints are used for sending and receiving information between different processes: of a similar application, different applications or system components. The most well-known approach to deal with such communication is to send data as broadcasts.

Wrapping Up!

Use of mobile applications for several purposes is on a steady rise in the modern cutting edge world. Individuals have begun utilizing mobile applications in a number of ways. Apps are being created to perform any assignment like buying, booking, work purpose, and banking. These and different other functions that include sensitive data should be shielded from unwanted mobile data leakage or data loss. It is the obligation of the android app development company to look into these security-related issues and give a protected and advantageous environment.

When talking about Data leakage and Security in an Android app, it is not limited to the above described points. There can be more places of data leakage and so, if you are building a mobile application, you need to be familiar with all the possible problems and should be eager to implement all the possible means of data protection and minimize the risk of android leaks.

If you are looking to develop an app that would be up to date with all the latest technologies of the current time and are secure, you can partner with our android application development services in USA, to help you expand your app journey.

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