With the increasing competition in the market, it is important for businesses to gear up their business game. The fact is the usage of mobile phones is growing continuously and so does the number of mobile apps. The increase in the number of mobile apps has made an increase in the rate of cybercrimes.
Can you tell how many of the apps today are 100% hack-proof? Hard to answer, isn’t it? Cyber Crimes can lead to loss of personal information, millions of dollars, and customer’s trust. One data breach incident of a company can harm the life of the trust of the users.
In the rat-race of becoming the top, the companies are not focussing on the important stages of the scrutinizing of security. “A trust once lost is difficult to win,” and we truly believe it. With research, tactics, enough time, and the latest technologies any system can be hacked.
An average mobile user has around 24-52 mobile app downloaded on their smartphones, so any glitch in the app can cost a big loss of data. The stats should surely ring a bell inside your head.
Data security is the topmost concern and companies should look for ways to safeguard the apps from being hacked. Today, we will guide you with a few tips that can help in creating a successful hack-proof mobile app.
Ways To Make A Hack-Proof Mobile App
Make Sure Libraries Are Updated
Whether you are creating an app on iOS or Android platforms, developers need to access hundreds of libraries to perform different tasks in an app. Thus, updating the libraries is a practice that every developer should follow to make a hack-proof mobile app.
Wondering, what sort of libraries are there? Well, there are libraries for weather, notifications, augmented reality, user interfaces, and much more. By constantly updating the libraries, the developers don’t have to reinvent the wheel for the basic functions. Thereby, making the life of developers much easier.
Often the old or outdated libraries are targeted by security attacks. You would often see updates to fix the issues of the libraries. It is important for the developers to manage these updates to avoid any hindrances.
Code Review
While creating a code for the app, developers take preventive measures to work on the technical functionalities. But, is that enough? We don’t think so! To get full-proof security, it is important to review the code and analyze the areas prone to cyber-attacks.
These may include – database access, authorization and authentication parts, use of cryptocurrency, and more that are vulnerable to cyber-attacks. By constantly reviewing these codes by the security professionals, you tend to make the mobile app hack-proof.
The fact is more than 10 million mobile devices are affected by malicious code today. Mobile malware is one of the most important aspects that taps all the vulnerabilities in the coding as well as the design of the app. The hackers tap into the vulnerabilities to obtain the public copy of the data and use it to get information.
Various apps are repackaged into the “rogue apps” that has the malicious code, these apps are then put on to the third-party app stores to attract the unsuspecting users to install the apps. The companies should look into the right techniques and tools to safeguard the apps from malicious tampering and activities.
Use Encrypted Web Addresses
When we talk about web addresses, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is something we commonly hear about. It’s the protocol that is used to send data between the website and the browser. But, do you know HTTPS is a more secure version of HTTP.
the HTTPS pages usually use one of the security protocols to encrypt the communications – TLS (Transport Layer Security) and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). If you want to implement an HTTPS connection, then you need the best SSL Certificate.
Wondering, why? Well, when you connect on HTTP, you are sending the plain texts which can easily be read by the hackers. And, the situation becomes riskier when you are doing transactions online. This is how the details filled by us in forms like – debit or credit card, social security number, and more. It’s clearly very risky!
The scene is completely different from the HTTPS connection. Here your data is securely encrypted that restricts the hackers from the data. This makes your mobile apps hack-proof and safeguards your personal information.
Have Authorized Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
As we all know, APIs are an integral part of backend development. The APIs allow apps to interact with other apps and the in-built features of the phone. If you are using loosely coded APIs, then you may unintentionally open a path for the hackers.
With new APIs, you don’t face problems like – authentication and authorization. When you hire the mobile app development team to create the APIs, then you should ask the team to incorporate an API gateway for the tight mobile app security. Otherwise, anyone can misuse your information and create a mess.
Repetitive Testing
App testing is a vital aspect to consider while making mobile apps. Whether you create a hybrid, native or web app, the app testing process should never be neglected. Testing allows you to detect vulnerabilities in code and help to make a secure app.
The OS updates and the security patches also contribute to providing better protection to the app. The on-going testing helps in eliminating the bugs and issue patches when needed. Every time you test the app, you look out for the loopholes and work on them while creating the hack-proof mobile apps.
Wrapping Up
With the increase in the number of mobile phones, mobile apps are becoming an attractive target for cybercriminals. A weak app integration opens a gate to hackers and allows them to misuse your information.
But, if you want to secure your apps and keep your data safe, then you should work on the above-mentioned tips. Remember, it is important to balance between innovation and security to make your app successful. Go ahead and make your app hack-proof.