Steps to Enhance the Security of your Mobile App

Posted by Bookyouroffice on October 12th, 2019

In a gambit to enhance the functionalities and user experience, the aspect of focussing on the security of the mobile application is often overlooked by the app development company. A need to follow a structured approach is very crucial when it comes to ensuring that the hackers and other similar groups don’t attack the application in any form. And, it is to be noted that security isn’t something to worry about after the development part has been finished rather, It is something to keep in mind from the very first stage of mobile application development.

1. Mobile App Security Issues at a glance

Common issues related to mobile app security include improper handling of sessions, broken cryptography, unintended data leakage, and poor authorization. The common issue of data leakage is due to the storage of app data in locations that are insecure, and the primary reason is the storage of data in a location that other apps can access.

2. Curbing the issues!

All the above set of issues can be challenged and improvised, with the right set of strategies, some of which are discussed below.

1. Be careful with APIThe mobile applications are able to interact with each other through an application programming interface (or API) that is vulnerable to attacks by hackers. And hence, securing the APIs becomes a necessity. Possibilities for securing include:

1. the use of authorized APIs in the application code. 

2. every application must receive an API key to modify or interact with the platform

3. Embedding an API gateway

4. Conducting code reviews 

5. adding a firewall for web apps by the app development company

2. Secure your network connections

No one can’t ignore the risk of a breach of network connections while talking about mobile application security. To avoid unauthorized access:

1. the cloud servers and servers accessed by APIs should be secured

2. penetration testers could be hired on a freelance basis for this purpose to detect the vulnerabilities and offer solutions to get rid of them.

3. Containerization can be done; the process of bundling of an app with its libraries, dependencies, and configuration files to run in a bug-free manner in several computing environments.

4. encrypt the database through SSL (secure sockets layer), TLS (transport layer security (TLS), or VPN (a virtual private network).

5. Federation using encryption methods, can be applied, a method that disperses resources across different servers and separates key resources from its users.

3. Encrypting the local data

. Encrypting the locally-stored data becomes a necessity because the attackers often target the data stored by the applications on mobile devices. To avoid affecting the end-user experience encrypt minimally. Some users get on-device encryption and for some, apps like WhisperCore are needed for the purpose.

For encrypting the local storage database, 

1. the use of the Ciphered Local Storage Plugin is recommended

2. The encrypted SQLite module by the Appcelerator program is also used

3. file-level encryption can be used, a method to protect data on a file-by-file basis.

4. Obscuring the code

A strategy applied to confuse the hackers by creating machine code or source code that’s difficult to understand is known as Obscuring or Obfuscation. Various obfuscation tools used in the market, such as Sirius, DashO, and TotalCode, or it can done manually by removing nonessential metadata and debugging information. As a result,

1. the information available to the attacker is substantially reduced.

2. improves runtime performance in most of the cases.

Obfuscation can bought about by:

1. encrypt some or most of the code.

2. Adding meaningless labels to use variable and class names.

3. inserting dummy code to the program in such a manner that the logic of the program remains unaffected.

4. injecting anti-tamper protection into the source code.

Using these strategies ensure that attackers cannot reverse engineer a software program.

5. Make a checklist of possible threats

It is better to have a list of threats and weak spots, before starting to test your mobile application for security to get a clearer picture, making the subsequent steps easier and efficient. Some common weak spots to include in your checklist:

1. Point of entry

2. Data transmission

3. Data storage

4. Data leakage

5. Authentication

6. Server-side controls

The checklist differs by the constitution of the app and industry you are producing it for with the help of an app development company in Delhi.