TechnoBugg
How To

Checklist of Cyber Risks for Mobile App and Ways to Overcome It:

Mobile devices – prevalent in colleges, schools, workplaces, heavily used, and often unregulated – present a plethora of opportunities to cybercriminals aiming to access users’ sensitive information.

The landscape for cyber risks to mobile applications is constantly changing.

Numerous new apps enter the mobile marketplace each day. In the first quarter of 2019, RiskIQ observed 2.26 million new mobile applications, nearly 6% more than the fourth quarter of 2018.

The sheer size, scope, and complexity of the mobile application global ecosystem make it increasingly difficult for application developers and organizations to monitor and protect their customers from an ever-evolving range of cyber threats.

What Do You Mean by Cyber Risks?

Cyber risks commonly refer to any chances of financial losses, disruption, or damage to the reputation of an organization that is the consequence of the failure of its information technology systems. Cyber risks could materialize themselves in various ways:

  • Deliberate and unauthorized breaches of security to gain access to information systems
  • Unintentional or accidental breaches of security
  • Operational IT risks due to poor system integrity

Cyber risks that are poorly managed can leave an application developer open to a variety of cybercrimes, with consequences ranging from disruption of data to economic destitution.

This can also lead to public relations nightmare and result in users losing trust and faith in the application and, subsequently, the developer organization.

According to a study made by Gartner, 75% of mobile applications were predicted to fail necessary security tests. HPE tested over 200 apps from 600 companies and drew the following conclusions:

  • 18% of applications sent usernames and passwords over HTTP while 18% implemented SSL/HTTPS correctly
  • 75% of applications utilized incorrect encryption methods for storage of data from the mobile devices
  • 71% of applications failed to incorporate binary hardening protection against cyber-attacks

A famous example of cyber risks for mobile applications manifesting themselves as cyber-attacks is the 2016 Uber data breach.

About a year later, after the attacks, Uber disclosed that hackers stole personal information, including names, email addresses, and phone numbers of approximately 57 million users.

The names and driver’s license numbers of around 600,000 drivers in the United States were also stolen as a part of the data breach.

Top Risks to Mobile App Security

According to the Arxan technology report, 90% of apps surveyed had at least 2/10 of OWASP’s top ten major security risks.

It was found that even today, 50% of businesses do not allocate any separate budget for mobile apps security.

While this means an opportunity for hackers, it can be a huge risk for businesses.

Some of the factors that adversely affect mobile security are:

  • Weak Server-Side Controls – Servers are used for communication between applications and databases and other functionalities.

Servers thus usually become the primary targets for hackers and attackers.

Major problems arise when developers do not consider and undertake the necessary server-side security protocols.

  • Lack of Binary Protections – A lack of binary protections within a mobile app exposes the application and its owners to a large variety of risks if the underlying application is insecure or exposes sensitive intellectual property like the code and scripts.

An attacker may be able to reverse engineer the code and possibly modify it to add malicious functionality.

  • Insecure Data Storage – Another threat to mobile apps security is the lack of secure data storage. Developers usually rely on client storage for the data.

In case of acquisition of a device by an adversary, this sensitive data can be easily accessed and manipulated.

  • Unintended Data Leakage – Unintended data leaks happen when critical app data is stored in insecure locations of a mobile device, making it accessible to other applications and users.
  • Poor Authorization and Authentication – Poor or missing authentication practices allow adversaries to anonymously operate the mobile app or backend servers of the mobile app. The Cost To Make An App is very high and if this happens, you have no way to move forward.
  • Broken Cryptography – Bad encryption or improper implementation can lead to broken cryptography. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability and decrypt data to its original form and manipulate or steal it.
  • Client-Side Injection – Client-side injections are the execution of malicious scripts and code on a mobile device through the mobile app.
  • Security Decisions via Untrusted Inputs – Developers generally use hidden fields, values, or functionalities in order to distinguish between higher and lower level users.

An attacker might intercept the calls and mess with such sensitive parameters resulting in higher-level permissions being granted to the attackers.

  • Mobile Malware – Mobile malware is malicious software that attacks the operating system of a mobile device. This software can potentially steal sensitive information like banking credentials, passwords, etc.

Consequences of Cyber Attack

Cyber-attacks on an application can have various consequences both in terms of reputation and monetary losses. Some major consequences include:

  • Reputational Damage – Cyber-attacks tend to cause damage to a developer’s reputation and subsequently erode user trust. This leads to a loss in customers and sales.
  • Data Losses – Data can be worth a lot of value to attackers, which can lead to loss and theft of sensitive data.
  • Financial Losses – As a consequence of a data breach, an organization may incur financial losses in the form of restoration of affected systems.
  • Fines – Apart from financial losses, there can be a prospect for fines from government organizations due to failure to comply with data protection legislation.

How to Protect Your Mobile App from Cyber Attacks?

In order to protect oneself from cyber-attacks, the following must be followed:

  • Integrate Security in the Code – The majority of known vulnerabilities are related to coding errors and implementation issues. Integrating security in the codebase can help eliminate many of these vulnerabilities.
  • Integrate Authentication & Identification – Mobile authentication is the verification of a user’s identity through the use of a mobile device and one or more authentication methods for secure access. Integrating both factors can help eliminate the misuse of assets by unauthorized users.
  • Secure the App from Backend – By securing the app from the backend using tools like encryption, decent levels of security can be achieved.
  • Secure Payment Transactions – Secure payment transactions help elevate security as it is difficult for hackers to get access to the transaction details. This is because the actual information is not transferred during the transaction.
  • Deal with Unknown Threats – Attacks cannot be predicted and neither the nature of the attack. A contingency plan should be ready in case of an emergency. This can help reduce the impact of the attack and therefore cause lower damage.
  • Implement ATS (App Transport Security)ATS is a security feature introduced in iOS 9 and subsequent versions. It promotes uses of HTTPS over HTTP for secure transport of data.

Conclusion

Cyber-crime is on the rise as cyber-crime evolves. It has never been more imperative for organizations to have precautionary security measures in place. Risk management is critical but does not guarantee immunity against cyber-attacks.

By following proper security measures and solutions, a seamless and minimum risk user experience can be achieved. This, in turn, helps improve the brand identity and preserve it against potential adversaries.

 

Author bio

Harikrishna Kundariya, a marketer, developer, IoT, ChatBot & Blockchain savvy, designer, co-founder, Director of eSparkBiz Technologies, Enterprise Mobile App Development Company. His 8+ experience enables him to provide digital solutions to new start-ups based on IoT & Blockchain.

Related posts

10 ways to Speed up Your Content Marketing

Guest Post

Now Recharge Your Phone Via Google Search

Akhil

Key tips for Data Security Tips in an Accounting Firm

Guest Post