Mobile app security is an extremely important aspect of every app as it ensures that your users are safe and secure with their data while you as a developer know that everything is alright. Nevertheless, many developers start thinking about it only at the closing stages of development. Here is how to increase mobile app security during app development.
1. Change Your Mindset
First and foremost, you need to change your mindset to be able to start thinking about security during the app development process rather than at the end of it. You have to start thinking about security from the moment you start developing your app rather than doing it at the very last moment when everything else is done.
Sit down and make a list of the things that might become a problem in the process or could potentially be harmful to your app. Then, think of the possible solutions to these issues. Most of them might be already solved by other apps, so all you need to do is follow their example.
2. Take into Account Various Perspectives
Don’t limit your view on app security by simply thinking everything through by yourself. You need to get different perspectives on this aspect of app development in order to fully understand it and be able to deal with it.
One of the best ways to do it is by listening to your customers. If you don’t have any customers yet, look at the customers of the apps similar to yours. They will definitely have some concerns that you will need to address while developing your app and enhancing its security. These will usually include anything from social media integration to management.
3. Get Everyone Onboard
Getting everyone onboard about your app security trajectory is essential for maintaining a brisk pace while developing your app. You want your entire team to understand what they are supposed to be doing, how they are supposed to be doing it, what tools they should be using, and what kind of goals they are supposed to be pursuing.
In addition to that, you might want to create a separate team that would be responsible for the security aspect of your app and would be closely working with your main team of developers. Of course, this is a better option for those who have a larger company developing the app.
4. Make Privacy a Priority
Security goes hand in hand with privacy, so making privacy one of your priorities is very important. The users of your app will value the fact that you put in so much effort into not only making their experience secure but also keeping their personal details private.
There is, however, also another side when it comes to privacy. If your app has an option for chatting with other members of its community, you have to ensure that these chats are properly created and the things users talk about will not be easily available to anyone else. Private messages should actually be private if you want to make your app secure.
5. Optimize for International Audiences
Another question related to security is the app’s availability for international audiences. Of course, it might be a little weird that this is such an important thing, but if you want to get your app downloaded by more people, you need to be aiming higher and going global.
To make the app easier to use for each and every one of your users, translate it into other languages with the help of an online translation service like The Word Point. Think of the regions and the people in these regions who will be more likely to get interested in your app. Then, check the languages spoken in those regions and make your list.
6. Deal with Authorization Early On
Authorization or authentication is present almost in any type of app. Not every developer, however, thinks about this process early on while they actually should. Writing your authentication story as soon as possible will ensure that you will be able to integrate it into your security plan smoothly.
You need to decide for yourself the kinds of data you want your users to use for authentication. Is it just the username and the password or is it the email and the password? Maybe you want to make both options available? In addition to that, consider two-step authentication to make it even more secure.
7. Trust Data Encryption
Data encryption is perhaps one of the fundamental things making app security possible. If data encryption didn’t exist, most personal details would be way more easily accessible. This is why you need to trust this technology and use it in your app development.
You could be using anything from SSL to TLS to add an extra layer of safety to your app.You should first think, however, about encrypting your local data because it is the most vulnerable one. Then, you can move on to your cloud servers.
8. Remember About APIs
API or application programming interface is a set of protocols and tools that help you build your app and allow it to communicate with other apps. APIs can significantly reduce the difficulty of developing an app. On the other hand, APIs can be dangerous for the security of your app.
When developing your app and using APIs, you will need to keep in mind the potential attacks that could be done through breaches created by APIs. Giving too many permissions to certain tools might not be the best idea, so you need to deal with it in some way and find your own solution.
9. Test Everything Regularly
Nothing works better for app development than regularly testing your creation and seeing which things work and which don’t. You want to make sure that every detail of your app is working properly and the security aspect is performing well.
At the same time, running regular checks can help you detect potential issues early and work on them before they turn into huge problems. Once your app is ready, you also need to have several tests that will make you completely certain that everything is fine.
10. Call It Done Once It’s Secure
Last but not least, after you’ve run all the necessary tests and know that your app is ready, you can only call it done once you know the security is ready too. Check everything several times just to be certain.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, app security has to be one of your top priorities while developing your app. Follow the advice in this article and you will definitely create a much better and more secure version of your app than you had.
