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Best practices for mobile application security – A necessity for all the developers

mobile security

The in-app protection is a very important concept. It must include proper practices associated with the mobile application security so that the application is free from risks and does not disclose the personal information of the user to the unauthorized people like hackers. Proper kinds of security checks must be performed for making the application available for the public.

Following are some of the methods that must be considered by the developers so that they can provide the consumers with the best quality services and enhance their experience:

– The data security should be enhanced: The developers of the applications must focus on developing proper security-related policies and guidelines so that users are not caught very easily by the hackers. This procedure includes proper implementation of the data encryption so that information is safely shared between the devices with the help of firewalls and other security tools wherever required. The app developers must follow proper guidelines published for the android and iOS-based applications.

-The password should not be saved: A lot of applications request the saving of passwords so that users are relaxed entering details repeatedly each time they visit the application. But in case of theft associated with mobile, the passwords can also be misused and thieves can have full access to every type of information. To prevent all such scenarios the users must make sure that they should not save the passwords on all the mobile devices. A good replacement of this option is that password should be saved on the server of the app so that one can log in and change the password even if the mobile is lost.

– The logout session should be enforced: A lot of users usually skip to log out from the website or application which they are using. This is the most common practice in the cases of banking applications and other payment applications. But this practice can prove to be highly harmful to the users. This is the main reason that best quality payment applications always terminates the sessions of the users so that safety levels of the users can be increased.

-Security experts should be consulted at each point of time: However, the security teams of the organizations and app developers are highly experienced but still, the outsiders can help in giving the new perspective to a problem. So, the application developers should consider the viewpoints of experts of security so that loopholes can be rectified and compromises can be minimized. All the companies should encourage the development teams so that they should get security features of the applications accessed and assessed by the third-party service providers so that best quality measures can be checked and taken.

-There should be multifactor authentication: The multifactor authentication will help in providing the best security layer each time the user will login into the app. This will also help in covering the problem of very weak password which can be very easily guessed by the hackers and there will be no compromise with the security of the application. This multifactor authentication would also help in providing the secret codes which can be shared with the password as well so that security and experience of the users are enhanced. The code will be sent through SMS or email. So, the chances of hackers getting access to such applications will be least.

-The concept of penetration based testing: This concept is well known to check the vulnerabilities in an application. All the potential weaknesses of the application which the hackers can use to compromise the security are identified here. Week password policy and other issues can be tackled very easily. When the re-creation of apps will be done by the hackers then the security will help in determining the weakness is there or not. It is highly recommended to go with the option of penetration testing so that the whole application is highly safe as well as secure. Most common ones are white box testing as well as black-box testing so that security issues can be identified. It is a full-fledged step-by-step process which involves pre-test approach, testing phase, reporting phase and then comes to the reviewing phase.

-Personal devices usage should be prevented: To reduce overheads associated with buying the systems a lot of companies go with the option of employees bringing their own devices a job. This may lead to several issues into the personal devices which are already ongoing on the employee’s devices and vice-versa. So, issues like trojans and malware can shift from a device to others and will ultimately affect each device. So, the organizations should avoid all such practices and all the devices which are to be connected with the networks of the office so that process can be thoroughly and properly scanned before allowing it access.

Third-party libraries should be used with proper precaution: The third-party libraries improve the requirements of coding and make the development process very easy. Sometimes it can pose to be a very risky proposition. So, the number of users of the library should be limited and a proper policy should be there to handle these libraries in the best possible way from attacks.

– The session handling should be done properly: All the sessions last longer on mobile devices in comparison to the laptops. This will help in increasing the load of the servers. The token should be used instead of identifiers of devices so that session is highly safe as well as secure. The tokens also can be revoked at anytime and they are highly useful in cases of stolen devices. The developers must always consider the option of expiration of sessions.

All other kinds of measures like managing the keys very securely and undertaking proper and periodic testing of applications should be done by the app developers. There are the latest threats each day which can cause different kinds of damages to be devices. So, it is the responsibility of the developers of applications to undertake various measures so that user experience can be improved with the help of proper enhanced security levels.

 

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