Analysts state that more than 75% of the mobile applications will fail the basic security tests in 2015 – Gartner Research.
Enterprises that follow the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach and facilitate mobile computing to their employees are susceptible to security threats and other vulnerabilities, unless they implement stringent security measures. In the development or deployment of mobile applications, a business can be severely impacted both financially and otherwise, if they are to encounter security breaches within and outside their enterprise. With the advancement of technologies, there is an ever-increasing scope of mobile security threats (and they are turning murkier by the day). The average costs incurred by an enterprise due to data loss amounts to $3.5 million (source: IBM) in lawsuits, apart from tarnishing the image of the brand and lowering consumer trust.
What can a web or iPhone app development company do to ensure that the applications developed by them are secure? The idea behind developing mobile applications is to provide users, employees and customers with a flexible solution, aimed at improving their productivity and efficiency. However, accessing mobile applications outside of a secure and tethered enterprise network on ad-hoc networks invariably enhances the risks and vulnerabilities of any application. It remains the task of the iPhone app development company to ensure that they follow as well as implement a secure application development procedure.
Here is what an iPhone app development company would usually do to implement security measures in an application.
1. Encrypting Sensitive Data
Mobile apps are no longer confined within the secure boundaries of enterprise firewalls. People are going mobile and entire workforces now have the capability along with the option of working from their mobile devices while being miles away from their desks or homes. Applications and data are accessible from ad-hoc wireless networks, which increase the chances of data being leaked and compromised. The first step to protecting security breaches is to ensure that the app does not store highly sensitive data. If at all the app is required to host such dada, the web application development company needs to incorporate high-level data encryption codes. The writing of a purging algorithm that periodically cleans up offline data can be another option.
2. Automating the Application Scanning Process
With the passage of time, enterprises are pivoting towards a lean and agile development process, where a fully functional product module rolls out with each iteration. Automating the scanning and testing of the build modules is a key to achieving a rapid development cycle for any iPhone app development company. Since security testing is not left to run at the end of the development of the project, the iterative development process reduces the costs of bug fixes and overall usability of the app.
3. The Use of Proven Architectures
For an iPhone app development company to deliver an all-engaging mobile app to their clients, they need to have and include access to real time data and perform transactions in real time. This requires the developers to incorporate secure integrations to cloud or on-premise systems and follow the tried and proven deployment platforms to ensure security of data.
Security is a highly critical element for enterprises and the web application development company ensures that they maintain high levels of data encryption and security in the apps that they engineer.
