Successfully Building a Mobile Apps Incorporating the Security Aspect
By Shivam Srivastav
March 15, 2017 5 min read
Last update on: July 16, 2019

There are no signs of any deterioration in the popularity of the mobile devices, smartphones and the tablets, since their  arrival a few years back. The smartphones are arriving at an impeccable speed and are making continuous inroads in our personal lives. The app developers are continuously building mobile apps which provide immense value to the users of the apps. There are millions of apps that are thronging the App Stores, displaying the best of their features.

Mobility is not only restricted to our personal lives , but we find that there are many enterprises, small or big that are adopting the technology of mobile apps, to hike the productivity of their employees. Startups on the mobile apps often resort to the mobile-first approach, vital for the survival of their business models.

But, the enterprise data from the mobile apps handle sensitive and confidential personal data. The mobile apps are vulnerable to security threats, particularly in the form of malwares, which can generate considerable amount of risk. This is the reason as to why security has assumed such a priority, while building a mobile app. The need arises to identify this risks and eliminate them, once for all.

The app developers generally follow some best practices for handling security of mobile apps and these are:

Using Security Codes

Any sort of vulnerability in the mobile app development code makes it open for a malware threat. The usual practice followed by the hackers is to develop a fake version of the app and then make it available in the App Stores for downloading. The users fall prey to this and give access to the personal data, right into the hands of the hackers.  So, the hackers can now manipulate personal and confidential data.

The apps are made insecure in their design and these issues can be avoided by the usage of scanning tools for the source code as well as analyzing code for the third parties. The mobile apps must be safeguarded against any sort of vulnerabilities, so the apps are not tampered, foiling any attempt to reverse-engineer the apps.

Prioritization of Device Security

Unauthorized apps can breakthrough the operating system security.  Precaution must be taken by us not to download the apps, from any source, so that malwares cause high risk, instances of these are unauthorized App Stores or untrusted third parties, thereby risking device security. It is advised that the users of enterprise apps must avoid the jailbroken or the rooted devices, at any cost.

Malwares are given excessive access to basic data with excessive permissions granted by the mobile apps. Device security must be incorporated within the apps. It is ideal when the apps do not continue with a transaction, on understanding that the device used is jailbroken and the app must not execute that transaction.

Checking Data Theft and Leakage

It is quite challenging to handle the leakage of Enterprise mobile apps. Leakage takes place with the employee losing his device or shares the data with non-enterprise apps. The most common practice is using encrypted data. Remote wipe capability can be used when a device data is already compromised.

Secured High Risk Mobile Transactions

Most of the enterprise app are integrated with third parties like banking apps, The banking apps are always integrated with payment modules from third parties. There is a need from the enterprises to prioritize these transactions according to risk levels involved and thereby successfully controlling the execution of these transactions. The parameters involved are network connection security, device security attributes and timing/location of the transactions. Any sort of high risk successful transaction will not be allowed.

Although, it is a common practice of the app developers to concentrate more on the functionalities and the features of the mobile apps, in delivering apps with wonderful features, but at the same time they must also take care of all the measures related to app and device security, ensuring that only secure apps are always on use.

Appinventiv is a mobile app development company, which has quickly curved out a niche in the area of mobile app development, within the last two years only. It believes in rendering the best of apps with impeccable features for its clients, using the most advanced technologies like iBeacon, Wearables and Internet of Things.

Shivam Srivastav
Shivam Srivastav
Marcom Manager
In search for strategic sessions?
Let us understand your business thoroughly and help you
strategies your digital product.

Related Articles: