We develop and deliver secured mobile apps

In this glittering world of technologies and computers, you can establish trust via many methods like password sharing, zero knowledge proof, asymmetric keys, end-to-end encryption, etc. 

With this accelerating rise in the mobile app economy, global enterprises and organizations are embracing this technology to enhance their communications with the client and to increase employee productivity. Today, even businesses that never used apps in the past are entering this domain. Mobile apps now become a mandatory solution for every company. Most importantly mobile apps have become a part and parcel of the life of all individuals where they are used even to transmit sensitive data.

Four things to make your mobile app secure

App entrepreneurs, as well as app developers, are in charge of mobile app security. They have to ensure that customer data is secure and safe from hacking attacks. There is only one way to keep private data safe – adopt particular security measures across every touch point of a mobile app. And we’ve covered some of the most important things to pay your attention while developing a secure mobile app. 

Two-Factor Authentication to Keep Users’ Data Safe and Sound

Passwords are the most common security measure but users tend to forget them as soon as they’re created. Moreover, passwords can be easily hacked. And sometimes, they are so simple that anyone could guess them with a few tries. When it comes to apps that access or store confidential data, losing passwords to hackers mean a tremendous loss. It doesn’t lend credence to passwords, does it?

Luckily, there is a two-factor authentication that helps solve this problem. Its most common implementation is when a user logs into an app and gets a randomly generated code via SMS or email. Only when the user enters the code together with the password, will he enter the app.

OAuth2 to Secure Sensitive Data

OAuth2 creates an access token that expires after a certain amount of time. The token is created and stored on the mobile devices when the users log in. Once the access token expires, the app asks the users to enter their login information.

With OAuth2, there is no need for storing API keys in an unsafe environment. Instead, access tokens are temporary and can be stored in an untrusted environment. Even if a hacker gets a temporary access token, it will expire and the hacker will be unable to store any sensitive data.

SSL to Create a Secure Channel Between User and Server

The recent research on mobile app security has revealed shocking information – 40% of mobile banking apps audited did not validate the authenticity of SSL certificates. The absence of SSL certificates makes apps vulnerable to hacking attacks. This scenario lets hackers intercept the traffic and carry out a similar scam or create a fake log-in with the help of arbitrary HTML/ Javascript code.

Most mobile apps do not implement SSL validation correctly. Hence, they cannot be protected from man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. In case your app needs to connect a remote server, consider implementing SSL certificates to ensure a secure channel between a user and a server.

Encryption

The Advanced Encryption Standard is currently one of the most popular security algorithms in symmetric key cryptography. It’s also called the “gold standard” of encryption techniques. Most companies use AES-256 for all communications.

How Can Developers Secure Mobile Apps?

A mobile app has a good set of things to secure and protect from hacking attacks: there is the software code, the business logic, databases, servers, APIs, the device and its operating system, and the user.

Each of the above-mentioned elements plays an important role in the app’s security. Here’s a small overview of how to make your app protected from hackers and malicious software.

Protect the Source Code

Mobile software security has to be a priority from day one. However, native apps tend to be more vulnerable to hacking attacks than web apps where data and software are stored on a server and a browser is just an interface. With native apps, however, the code is stored on the device once the app is installed making it more accessible for hackers.

There could be lots of vulnerabilities in the app’s source code. Thus, network and data security components are important parts of mobile app security.

Tips and Tricks:

• Protect app code with encryption. Encryption helps to keep the code secret and hard to read or copy.
• Test code for vulnerabilities or carry out source code scanning to secure your phone app.

Secure Network Connections

If the app accesses any servers or cloud servers, make sure that they have security measures in place to prevent unauthorized access and protect data. APIs and the servers accessing them should be verified and checked for any security risks.

Tips and Tricks:

• Take advantage of containerization to create encrypted containers for storing data and documents
• SSL, VPN, TLS, or HTTPS to protect the channel between a server and a user.

Put Authentication, Authorization, and Identification In Place

Authentication and authorization technologies help identify the users and adds one more layer of security to the login process. There is a wide range of technologies to implement authentication and authorization.

Tips and Tricks:

• Use caution if your app uses any third-party APIs.
• Take advantage of OAuth2 to manage secure connections via temporary tokens.
• Two-factor authentication provides an additional layer of security and requires to enter randomly generated codes sent via SMS or email.