{"id":81514,"date":"2022-07-06T10:41:10","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T02:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.i-sprint.com\/?p=81514"},"modified":"2022-08-03T15:55:36","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T07:55:36","slug":"best-practices-for-strengthening-mobile-app-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i-sprint.com\/ja\/best-practices-for-strengthening-mobile-app-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Practices for Strengthening Mobile App Security"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In today\u2019s app economy, mobile apps contribute heavily to economic activity. In 2020 alone, Android\u2019s Play Store and Apple\u2019s App Store generated a combined $50.1 billion of revenue<\/a>\u2014and that was just in the United States. Developers get tasked with coding these apps and providing the features demanded by consumers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a competitive landscape, development teams focus their priorities on user experience, solving problems that improve the daily lives of users, and innovating apps with new features. Often, security plays the role of an afterthought to these primary concerns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recognizing that developers might neglect security in favor of other priorities, malicious threat actors regularly target security weaknesses in an attempt to exfiltrate data, take over mobile devices, or even infiltrate networks through backend servers. Mobile app security needs to become a central priority in the modern cyber threat landscape. This article covers some fundamental best practices for developers to strengthen mobile app security and mitigate against common cyber attacks. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mobile App Security Best Practices<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You could write a book on how to best secure mobile applications. From user authentication to APIs, to server vulnerabilities, there is a lot to cover. However, nailing down some fundamental best practices goes a long way toward dramatically increasing the security of mobile apps for developers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Implement Stronger User Authentication<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relying on passwords alone to authenticate users is an outdated approach that makes apps and user accounts vulnerable to breaches. Many developers restrict their efforts at strengthening authentication to make it mandatory for users to create strong passwords.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are now more than 15 billion stolen credentials available to threat actors on the dark web from previous data breaches. Therefore, reliance on just passwords to authenticate is risky given that all it takes is one user reusing the same credentials in your app from a previous breach.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Stronger access control in mobile apps needs to include other categories of evidence for verifying user identities. Based on the sensitivity of application data and reputational risk of the brand offering the app, seek out an authentication server solution that offers support for multiple ways of implementing two-factor authentication and password protection. For the password itself, it is good to implement end-to-end encryption in addition to SSL for protection in transit as well as at rest. For two-factor authentication, instead of asking for a one-time password which may be a push factor for user experience, consider implementing mobile tokens which allow push-based logins combined with phone-based biometrics. While looking for an authentication server, it is important to choose one that does not lock you into a specific vendor or technology for the authentication mechanism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Secure the Software Supply Chain<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mobile apps depend on a combination of proprietary code and third-party components. These third-party components include frameworks and libraries that save time for developers with ready-made app functionality and behaviors, such as handling network requests or loading images.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The third-party components used to build mobile apps form a software supply chain that requires securing. Developers need to exercise due diligence in the libraries and frameworks they select for their mobile apps. Look for reputable open-source projects that are well-maintained. <\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, make sure to regularly update any libraries or frameworks that your mobile apps depend on. Serious vulnerabilities can emerge even in reputable third-party components as was evidenced during the Apache <\/span>Log4j<\/span><\/a> incident in 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

Encrypt Data<\/strong><\/p>\n

As users interact with mobile apps, they regularly create data that gets stored locally on their devices or traverses the Internet to backend systems. Furthermore, important development data, which includes APIs, certificates, and authentication tokens, is also stored on mobile devices. Encryption is a pillar of modern app security because it protects this data by converting it into an unreadable format that threat actors can\u2019t use in any meaningful way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Strong encryption standards, such as AES-256, are almost impossible to break with brute force. It\u2019s essential to protect both states of data in mobile apps:<\/span><\/p>\n