How secure is your business’s mobile application? This question is important for peace of mind of your customers—and to an extent—your IT department as well.
We live in the mobile age of technology, i.e. every service that we can ever hope for can be easily accessed with our mobile devices.
In fact, customers (and employees) today have come to expect the very best in mobile services and applications.
With increasing popularity of BYOD devices and use of mobile services to conduct just about anything, companies should be trying to find out how much secure their mobile applications and related systems really are?
Increasing Need for Mobile Security Assessments
You have a lot to learn about mobile security and why it’s important (including the use of web application penetration testing). Here are some questions you should be asking:
· What are the potential vulnerabilities in my mobile application that attackers could exploit?
· Is there any way to project mobile applications from malicious activity?
· What should be done to protect users from hackers and cyber criminals?
Mobile security assessment is the answer. They are often triggered by the developer’s need to meet compliance requirements. However, you should undergo mobile security assessment of your application in order to identify and remove all security risks.
Mobile Security Assessment – What Should You Focus On?
Following are three highly important points for mobile application security that you must look into when running the assessment.
1. The Code
Mobile malware works by exploiting bugs or vulnerabilities that are already found in the code. Since app deployment to specific devices cannot be controlled by mobile app developers, steps must be taken during app development.
Security testing and assessment should be carried regularly of all stages of software development. Ensure everyone in your team (involved in web application development) is given basic security and penetration testing training.
2. The Data
There has been an increased use of BYOD for work purposes, in recent years. This has increased chances of non-deliberate exposure of company data by employees themselves!
Common sources of data leakage that is exploited by cyber criminals are:
o Data logging
o Cookies
o Caching through HTTP
o HTML5 local
o Buffering through copy/paste data
Data encryption is the obvious solution to secure important information.
3. The Device
A mobile application is only as secure as the smartphone the app is stored on. What this means is: a mobile device poses an increased risk when it comes to malware.
The obvious solution to this security problem is to make the mobile application stored in the mobile, secure and risk-aware. This can be done by implementing risk-based authentication on mobile applications that would prevent access on certain devices. In addition, transactions conducted by the user can be silently flagged (for review and follow-up on any suspicious activity) before the command is executed.
Mobile Security Assessment – What Is The Bottom Line?
All focus levels, i.e. the code, the data, and the device must be met for your mobile applications to be considered secure. Regular and dynamic risk assessment is an important part for the process. What is it? Learn more about dynamic risk assessment and penetration testing from Lean Security. You can even opt for our free website health security check!