Have you ever used utility apps like phone scanners? Are you a business owner running a business process on an enterprise app? Be it an individual or a firm, your trade secrets, quotations, employee data, and more sensitive information are all out there. You could be a start up or a SMB with a retail app that stores user’s credit card and bank account details. You could be an app owner whose app works on the freemium model, trading money for features or you could be an individual providing access to your media files and portfolio to use the dog face filter in Snapchat. When you trade your data for an app service and vice-a versa, do you wonder where and how is this data being guarded.
Mobile App security is an essential but highly underrated aspect of a mobile application. Too often neither app owners, nor app users consider the threats that arise from leaving loopholes in app security. Mobile App Security, is one of the most important components of a mobile app. With Smart phones getting replaced with memo pads, our check books, accounts, id proofs, cameras, mini storage devices and almost anything that is synonymous with, or holds critical data. Critical data needs stringent security. All our critical data has shifted to our handheld devices. Now we have to ask, how safe are these mobile apps and how safeguarded is the data that’s stored in them?
Better Mobile Security is the only solution that prevents threats in real time. Our solution continuously monitors at the behavioral level of the applications performance and looks for exploits within it, so if any anomalies, our product will alert you right away and prevent you from using the device until the threat is deleted
Mobile app developers not much concerned about security aspects during development
Majority of app developers are on the crossroads when they have to make a decision about security aspects of their application vs time to market. It is tempting to give preference to time to market and consider mobile application security an afterthought. Unlike common belief that application security is time-consuming and costly affair, it is more likely a thing of daily practice. Having basic security practices in place can save developers from several potential consequences. I will try to answer this questions based on my experience in software development and working with multiple customers.
Developers App security concerns vary from company to company according to their development culture. If he/she is a Freelancer, then it depends upon their experience in Software Development. Here are some of the obvious reasons for app developers to adopt early security practices.
1. Bad Press
If the app is reported with a security breach, it will be part of news report and will lead to damage to its reputation.
2. Money loss
Security issues will result in huge financial loss depending upon the volume of the transaction if the application is dealing with online payments.
3. Rules and Regulation
Not implementing security app may draw startups to some serious legal issues.
Users are using mobile apps for every major and minor purpose. They are putting all their data within an app with trust that nobody will get it. Looking at the growing usage of mobile apps and users’ personal details within them, hackers are turning smarter to research on possible attack schemes in mobile platforms. Thus, taking care of security aspects is compulsory for any mobile app developer.
Back to your question: as per my opinion mobile app developers are more concerned about security aspects. If you visit a reputed app development company, then you must find that how much security matters are important for them. They put security at center during app development process.
Startups/companies to focus on mobile App security
As soon as your app shares sensitive data from consumers you should implement proper security. A reputation is hard to build but can easily be broken down when a data breach occurs. Mobile App security can also provides consumers a number of convenient login methods like fingerprint, eye recognition, voice recognition and PIN instead of a username/password combination. We all know username and passwords are a pain in the ass and ask yourself how many times have you requested a new password or even username for websites you rarely visit. A survey done in 2012 showed people between the age of 25 - 34 year old have an average of 40 online accounts, imagine the number of accounts nowadays.
I think when you have not experienced identity theft first hand it is hard to imagine what the implications are if some of your data is leaked. So being afraid of something you haven’t experienced yet is like being afraid of an earthquake in the Netherlands. Or a volcano eruption for that matter.
It is however IMO the responsibility of the app developer to ensure my online safety if he wants my business.
Look there are many freelancers and startups in the market developing the mobile application in cutting cost and prefer shortcuts to complete and deploy the apps. They have two to three targets in their mind:
- Trendy designs
- Bug free
- Quick responsive
Generally third party API’s used in applications are encrypted but during the development of web services for the App, many PHP and JAVA developers still not using encrypted codes as Mobile app security which can be hacked in future and will result trouble and data crash in the app.
Conclusion: Clients should know what are the major requirements of his/her product which he needs from the service provider. He should clearly mention in the meetings and contract also about the technical requirements. So consultation is must before implementation. In general, you must focus on the analysis and research.
Author Bio: Deepak is entrepreneur marketer, developer, designer, storyteller, thinker, at iMOBDEV Technologies, a leading web & mobile app development company. We take pride in offering the best suitable IT solutions for start-ups, mid-size businesses, and large organizations.
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