10 Key Mobile App Security Best Practices

We are in an interconnected world, where mobile phones have become an integral part of our daily lives. The global smartphone market size was valued at USD 457.18 billion in 2021. The ripple effect is that mobile apps are now a popular way to deliver efficient, direct, and customizable products and services to customers, particularly in the business world. On the flipside, there are also mobile app security concerns you ought to keep in mind as you create and use mobile apps owing to the growing number of cyber attacks. Well, this article highlights key mobile app security best practices that you should follow to protect user data and maintain the trust of users.

Secure Coding Practices

The best place to start is to follow secure coding practices throughout the mobile app development process. For example, you need to write code that is easy to read and understand by following consistent naming conventions, indentation, and formatting. You should also use meaningful variable and function names to enhance code readability and maintainability.  Following coding practices will help you avoid flaws in the app that might lead to cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The bottomline is that using tested and proven secure coding practices will help you mitigate the risk of potential security vulnerabilities.

Strong Authentication and Authorization

You should also implement robust authentication and authorization mechanisms to ensure that only authorized users can access the app and its resources. You can do this through enforcing strong password policies including a combination of alphanumeric characters, symbols, and a minimum length.

Additionally, implementing password hashing with strong cryptographic algorithms in your software development life cycle. Some of the common algorithms you can use are bcrypt or Argon2, to protect sensitive information like passwords stored in your databases. You can also use salted hashing to add an extra layer of security.

It is vital to educate your mobile app users about the importance of using unique and complex passwords and encourage them to regularly update their passwords. Research has reiterated the importance of educating users on password security. Most password security studies have found that many individuals still use weak and easily guessable passwords, putting their accounts at risk of being compromised.

However, when users are provided with education and guidance on password security best practices, there is a significant improvement in their password choices. It has also been found that user-friendly guidelines and persuasive messages can motivate users to select more secure and memorable passwords without overburdening their memory.

Generally speaking, password security education can help individuals understand the risks associated with password reuse and the importance of using unique passwords for different accounts. Promoting password security education can help you empower your mobile app users to take an active role in protecting their online identities and sensitive information, contributing to a more secure digital landscape

Tip: Encourage the use of multi factor authentication like text and email on top of email authentication, and technologies like biometrics for enhanced security. It will also help to implement session management techniques to handle user sessions securely.

Secure Data Storage

Protecting sensitive user data is also very crucial as you develop your mobile apps. Remember, there are phone hacker for hire who can use plan-text data to access sensitive information. This is why you will need to encrypt data at rest using industry-standard algorithms to prevent unauthorized access in case of data breaches.

Again, always avoid storing sensitive information like passwords in plain text and consider implementing secure key management practices. Ideally, employ secure file storage techniques and ensure that file permissions are properly configured.

Don’t forget to protect data stored locally on the device, such as caches, databases, or local storage.

Secure Network Communication

Secure network communication is also an important facet of protecting user data while it is transmitted over networks. In this regard, utilize secure communication protocols like HTTPS/TLS to encrypt data during transit, preventing eavesdropping and tampering. HTTPS encrypts the communication between the mobile app and the server, ensuring that data transmitted over the network remains confidential and cannot be easily intercepted or tampered with by attackers.

HTTPS essentially verifies the authenticity of the server, establishing a secure and encrypted connection. This safeguards sensitive user information, such as login credentials and personal data, from being compromised during transmission. HTTPS also helps prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, where attackers intercept and modify data exchanged between the app and the server. Using HTTPs can help you provide users with a secure and trustworthy environment, protecting their data and privacy while fostering trust in your mobile application.

Tip: Always verify server certificates to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks. Also, implement certificate pinning to ensure communication only with trusted servers.

User Input Validation

The other way to protect against breaches targeting your mobile apps is to validate and sanitize all user input to prevent common security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), or command injection attacks.

XSS attacks occur when malicious scripts are injected into a website or web application by exploiting user input fields. Well, validation mechanisms should include checking for special characters, such as angle brackets, quotes, and script tags, and ensuring that user input is properly encoded or sanitized before being displayed or stored. This essentially helps in effectively lowering risk of XSS attacks, as it blocks the execution of malicious scripts and prevents them from being rendered on mobile apps.

Input user validation is also a very good defense against SQL injection attacks. SQL injections occur when attackers manipulate user input to inject malicious SQL queries into the application’s database. Now, input validation including measures such as parameterized queries, input sanitization, and strict validation of user-supplied data types ensures that only expected data is accepted and eliminates the possibility of malicious SQL code being executed.

Proper input validation also helps safeguard the integrity and confidentiality of data stored in the database, mitigating the risk of unauthorized access and potential data breaches. It is a critical step in securing web applications and protecting against SQL injection vulnerabilities.

Secure Error Handling

As a rule of thumb, ensure you implement proper error handling mechanisms to provide minimal information to users when errors occur as they use your mobile app. This should help you avoid exposing sensitive system details or error messages that could be exploited by attackers. Instead, log errors securely only for internal use, assisting in identifying and resolving issues without exposing sensitive information to malicious users.

Regular Updates and Patch Management

It is also recommended that you stay vigilant about vulnerabilities and security updates related to the libraries, frameworks, and components used in the mobile app development.

Regularly update and patch the mobile application to ensure that known security vulnerabilities are addressed promptly.

Ensure that you update the libraries used in building your mobile app. This has several benefits for security. Most libraries often release updates to address vulnerabilities and security weaknesses identified in previous versions. Your apps will also be fortified with the latest security patches, reducing the risk of exploitation by attackers.

In fact, updating libraries enables you to take advantage of new security features and improvements that enhance the overall security posture of the app. These updates may include strengthened encryption algorithms, improved authentication mechanisms, or enhanced data handling practices.

Regular updates on the mobile app libraries will also help to maintain compatibility with other components and frameworks, reducing the likelihood of compatibility issues that could introduce security vulnerabilities.

Ultimately, staying up to date with library updates demonstrates a commitment to ongoing security and reduces the likelihood of falling victim to known cybersecurity vulnerabilities that attackers may attempt to exploit.

Tip: You can make this easier using automated update mechanisms whenever possible to streamline the update process for users.

Keep an Eye on User Privacy

You ought to also respect user privacy and handle personal data with care, particularly with stringent regulations like the GDPR that stipulate this. In fact, it is always good to clearly communicate the data collection and usage practices through a comprehensive privacy policy. Better even, obtain user consent for collecting sensitive data and provide users with granular control over their data. Also, implement data anonymization and pseudonymization techniques to minimize the exposure of personally identifiable information.

Tip:

It is crucial to avoid storing excessive amounts of user data due to the inherent cybersecurity risks involved. Storing large volumes of user data increases the potential attack surface for malicious actors. The more data stored, the more attractive the target becomes, making it more enticing for hackers to breach the system

Regular Security Testing and Auditing

Last but not least, ensure that you conduct regular security testing and audits to identify and address vulnerabilities in your app and other dependencies. For example, do regular penetration tests, code reviews, and security assessments to uncover any potential weaknesses in the app. Again, you can always tap into automated security testing tools to supplement manual testing efforts to get better results.

Tip: You can engage third-party security experts to perform independent audits and provide valuable insights on your mobile app.

Wrapping up

These are just some of the key security best practices you can use to protect your business and customers as they use your mobile app. Remember that ensuring the security of mobile applications is a continuous and evolving process. In other words, you will need to evolve and keep fine-tuning your mobile app cybersecurity strategy if you are to enhance the security posture of your business and customers.