3 Reasons Why Your Business Would Benefit From a Mobile Application

Are you deciding to build a mobile application for your business? Well, there are certain advantages of doing so but it’s extremely important to be fully clear as to what your objectives are from the very start. Following are some reasons and popular routes of having a mobile application as shared by Lean Security. 

Active Customer Engagement

The best thing perhaps that businesses can take advantage from going mobile is the increased potential that doing so will provide when it comes with customer interaction. Not only this but companies will be able to interact with their clients in real-time, by location and profile information complete that will also let them know of the demographics that visit the application.

Increased Customer Service and Support

People look for simple interfaces when online shopping, which helps them to navigate easily throughout the site. Many businesses are making mobile applications for their websites just because of this, because their clients now prefer to use their mobiles to do online shopping. Not only this but such mobile applications also offer tools that make the experience even simpler and effective, making their lives easier with 24/7 customer support and service on board.

Promotion of Brand

Having a mobile application provides businesses the advantage of 24/7 promotion and marketing of their products and offers, as they can showcase whatever is new straight in the mobile application making everyone view it. One effective way of using this to the utmost is by offering coupons, which will help increase sales as people are more likely to visit your apparel store for example, after being notified on their mobile phones regarding an offer that they can miss out on.

Moreover, developing a mobile application is a very good idea especially if you sell services or products online as this will provide your customers with the one thing that will make all the difference, i.e. mobility. This will not only increase your sales but your clients’ base as well.

The end result that you should be working on is how to capture the attention of existing or potential customers, increase your product range and offerings, entice people to buy from you etc which will only be possible with a web and mobile application that runs without any hitch. Learn more about the web and mobile assessment solutions that Lean Security offers here.        

What is Source Code Analysis?

Source code analysis is basically the automated testing of a program’s source code. The main purpose of source code analysis is finding faults and fixing them before the application is deemed ready to be distributed or sold.

Basically, source code analysis could be compared to static code analysis. During static code analysis, the original source code is analyzed simply just as code while the program itself is not running. This way, the need for creating and using test cases is almost completely eliminated. Overall, source code analysis finds faults in the program that may prove to be damaging to its proper functionality, i.e. like crash causing lines of code.

·        How Does it Work?

First things first: source code analysis is automated code debugging. Here, the main goal is to find faults and bugs that might come across as obvious to the programmer. This is done to find fault such as:

·         Untidy use of pointers

·         Misuse of garbage collection functions

·         Possible buffer overflows

If these faults are not caught on time then there is a chance that they can be exploited by malicious entities.

Analyzers of code take the help of standard rules to tell them what to look for. Analyzers need perfect precision balance for this process to work. Too much precision and the source code analysis might take too long to finish. And if there is not enough precision, then the users might be flooded with useless warnings and a lot of false positives.

There are two types of analyzers:

·         Intra-procedural: Focuses on pattern matching and relies on different kinds of patterns the user is looking for.

·         Inter-procedural: Detects patterns from one function to the next. These patterns are connected so that the analyzer can generate a model and simulate execution paths.

·        How Does it Strengthen the Security of Your Business?

Business security is mostly focused on application level nowadays. Since most security efforts have been successful in protecting the business perimeter, hackers have focused on enterprise applications to continue their malicious attacks.  Hackers make the errors in software or embedded code to work in their favor and control company computers and access classified data and customer records.

Static Code Analysis (SCA) is a security tool which is used to verify detrimental code and flaws in applications before they are either used or distributed. Code reviewers use automated tools to determine vulnerabilities keeping the complexity of current applications in mind. The SCA tools decrease the time it takes to assess intricate codes and detect problems that need to be prioritized.

In short, source code analysis can help make your applications safe before they have the chance to do some real damage. Static Application Security Testing should be viewed as a mandatory practice for all IT organizations procuring or developing applications. Keeping that in mind, you can contact us anytime to avail our web application scanner and security testing services. 

The Most Problematic Mobile Security Threats (Part 2)

In today’s age, mobile communication has become an integral part of personal and professional life for most people. But as the need for mobile communication has grown, so has the number of mobile security threats. For the hackers, mobile threats can prove to be lucrative.. For most organizations, however, they are nothing but an ever growing pain.

Currently, there are many mobile security threats that leave even the experts stymied. Continuing from where we left off in the last post, here are some threats that the pros find especially problematic.

6.     Android Fragmentation

Most security threats associated with Android are very rarely highlighted in public forums, despite the fragmentation of the Android mobile OS being well documented and discussed.

Security patches are often not the top consideration with so many variations. The security patches include the infrastructure essential to deploy the update on a per-carrier basis and worldwide. Many devices never see a patch or a full OS upgrade but are still released with an operating system.

7.     Non Responsive Insiders

It might surprise you to know this but over 35% of corporate and enterprise employees thoroughly believe that data security is not their responsibility. And a surprising 59% of the employees believe that a laptop or a mobile device with company data would not result in a threat to the security of the company.

This could be easily taken care of by educating the employees about security threats and how to be wary of them. Sadly, most organizations believe that the employees ought to know better on their own.

8.     Sophisticated Mobile Attackers

Attackers continue to be even more sophisticated about their attacks despite the fact that companies and security specialists come up with ways to block the attacks and enhance the existing security measures. This is why organizations need to be sure they have a comprehensive and up-to-date security solution set in place.

9.     Hostile Enterprise Signed Mobile Apps

Hostile enterprise signed mobile apps are a collection of malicious apps that thwart app store controls by leveraging enterprise application distribution ability in Android and iOS. This class of apps uses private OS APIs to gain detailed device information.  They might even change settings, mine address books and profile enterprise networks, and send that information to the malicious entities.

10.Legit Mobile Apps that Mine Corporate Information

More often than not, the security threats faced by organizations come from apps present in the devices of the employees. Most people simply don’t realize that personal and corporate data may be sent to remote servers and advertising networks all over the world. From there, that data can be mined by malicious entities and hostile governments seeking access to corporate networks.

Most experts agree that in the coming years, corporate hacking will be done through apps. This is why you should give mobile app security testing special consideration. You can get in touch with us to avail this service and other services like web application penetration testing. To read this list from the beginning, head over to part 1 of this blog. To know more about web and mobile application security, you can browse our website. 

The Most Problematic Mobile Security Threats (Part 1)

The thing about mobile apps is that they are not only popular with knowledge workers, but hackers too. This makes the issue of securing the apps complex even for the professionals. Here are some of the most problematic mobile security threats usually faced by security pros.

1.     Lack of a Proper Mobile Device Policy

A policy should be created regarding mobile security that establishes rules for authentication. This should include credential storage. For emails and the device itself, PII restrictions should be up held. Restrictions should also be applied on passwords, PINs, and usage. 

In essence, a mobile device policy should be made part of the onboarding process. It is also suggested that new employees at a company, before receiving their device or access to company resources, should read and sign off on the policy informing them of the established mobile security policy. 

2.     Connection Hacking

One of the most common examples of connection hacking is the ‘man-in-the-middle’ attack. Employees often use company devices to access company servers in open spaces. They might think they are safe behind the corporate firewall, but in reality, attackers set up a rogue access point and they start receiving all personal information the second they log in. This has the potential to leak a lot of sensitive data. 

3.     Authentication Attacks

Although not necessarily for stealing data on a mobile device, authentication consolidation will more than likely result in data specific exploits.

Industry experts predict that mobile devices will be progressively targeted for broader credential stealing. Either that, or for authentication attacks to be used at later on in the future.

For example, think of mobile devices as a direct conduit to cloud. The cloud just keeps on getting bigger as it is provided more and more data. Almost all organizations use numerous devices (laptop, tablet, mobile, etc.) to access that data. This means that by cracking just the device, the malicious entities could have access to the ever expanding cloud filled with sensitive information.

4.     Rootkits

Because of their very nature, rootkits are almost impossible to trace. Due to this, the attacker gets absolute control of the device. What is even more worrying is that it is very much possible for personal and sensitive information to be extracted through rootkits. This is especially worrying as more and more people have started to depend on mobile devices for their day to day activity. With a rootkit, malicious attackers can cause unprecedented damage.

5.     Mobile Payment Security Sources

The new payment platform of Facebook uses third party resources for security. If Facebook has a Trusted Service Manager platform installed in place and agreements with the manufacturers of the handsets, for the management of secure elements, then their payment solution would introduce Facebook into classical payment. Though, this is quite difficult and Facebook may not evolve in that way.

All these points just emphasize the need for mobile app security testing. Having your app tested by the professionals will ensure that it is safe from most mobile app security threats. To avail this service and others like web application penetration testing, get in touch with us.