It is needless to say that mobile applications are all the hype of this decade and others to come. There are a million applications available across all app stores and hundreds of new applications are published every day. To be precise, an average adult has about 26 to 55 apps in the smartphone device.
This states the fact that the careless consumption of these mobile apps have allowed hackers to steal the private information of users by hacking into applications. This data can be your account bank account credentials, private data and more. This might come as a shock to you but it has been researched that 100% of paid applications on Play Store had been hacked at least once.
Now, the question arises – “what can we do to avoid such incidents?” Luckily, we have the answer. It is – “Prevention is better than cure.”
Let’s look at the ways with which you can effectively protect or prevent your information and apps from getting hacked.
Make use of Android and iCloud Keychain
The KeyChain class grants access to private keys and their corresponding certificate chains in credential storage. In simple words, it is a guarded storage container that keeps all sensitive data such as passwords, usernames, and other personal credentials. This works for all the applications in a device.
This is considered a better solution for developers to use with the operating system to fulfill the purpose of data storage instead of using the p-list and NSUserDefaults for the same purpose. Moreover, with the help of keychain for both Android and iOS, users are not required to log into an app every time the application is opened.
Own and secure the code
One of the most dangerous kinds of malware is the code that directly affects the code. It affects all the bugs and vulnerable points in the design along with the coding of the apps they are set to target.
As a matter of fact, hackers get their hands on public copy of the targeted app and reverse engineer it, even before the vulnerabilities of the app are exploited. Then, the apps are repackaged as “rogue applications” and published on the app stores to lure more users into downloading them and eventually compromise their personal information.
In fact, almost 11 million devices are being attacked by malicious code at a time, concreting the need for Android app development companies to create more robust applications.
Detect Unprotected Run-time environment
It does not matter how robust an application is if the device is easily prone to viruses and malware, which jeopardizes the safety of the data. Any jailbroken or rooted device amplifies the risk of hacking of the app. In this case, mobile enterprises are required to make the security of the devices a priority.
The mobile app sandbox has to be tightly secured. It is important to restrict such devices from getting access to enterprise data.
Secure Transactions
Here, enterprises are required to leverage the risk-aware approach which is capable of blocking the client-side functionalities, entirely depending on various important aspects such as user location, device security attributes, and so on.
In fact, even after the client-side transaction is passed, the applications are able to use the mobile risk engine to correlate the numerous risk factors including IP velocity, user access patterns, etc. This will make sure that the organization will detect any implying risks and then take appropriate actions in this regard.
Encryption is useful
Encryption is another incredible way to safeguard your applications from malware and cybercriminals. You need to be absolutely sure to use as much encryption as possible when you are saving the data in any of the local databases. This is a fairly simple process as it includes translating the plain text into a cipher code of unreadable text by using certain algorithm based keys. This way, if the hackers try to enter the application, they will have to first get access to the decipher key, hence protecting the applications and data.
Libraries
Libraries are an indispensable part of mobile applications and developers have access to a huge number of libraries. In which case, it is imperative for them to keep their libraries updated at all times. There is a set of libraries for numerous purposes such as testing, sending notifications, building the user interface, and adding features of music, weather, AR, and so on.
It is observed that outdated libraries often end up being the easy target of hackers. So, there are always new updates launching in the market and it is important to be updated with them.
Look for the encrypted address
To block any unauthorized access, the servers which your app APIs use must have a strong security layer and measures. For this purpose, a robust network connection on the backend is necessary. HTTPS is a big help in safeguarding communication established between the app and its server.
In order to establish an HTTPS connection, all you need to have is an SSL certificate (Secure Sockets Layer).
These are the tried and tested methods that have worked well so far. Once you perform them, your app will be safe from hackers to a great extent.
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