Apps are all the rage right now, but why wouldn’t they be?
Mobile usage is up significantly among smartphone and tablet users, and more and more people are turning to the “second screen” during live digital events.
In fact, many smart marketing companies are choosing to combine mobile apps, real-time events, and traditional advertising at the same time.
However, even as technology has improved and advanced, so have the skills and ill desires of hackers.
Today, unsecured apps can be hacked to reveal important personal user data, including credit card information.
Why Taking Things Lightly Seems Easy
There are a number of factors that play into why small business owners refuse to take app security seriously.
First, it’s typically out of their control. If you don’t know anything about the IT world and simply rely on a professional or professional team to handle this aspect, you expect things to be completed correctly, right?
This is an issue where you either need to educate yourself or demand not only updates on progress, but also updates on the state of app security.
In addition, companies like Google and Apple have made things “just work”, removing the concern for many CEOs and even developers.
Encryption and Data
As discussed in the article, “Tell Your App Developers to Watch Out for These 5 Security Dangers,” two of the things you’ll need to consider most important are encryption and data storage when developing an app.
Encryption refers to how data is protected during the storage process, and data storage refers to how data is protected after it has been encrypted.
Encryption is the process through which data is “scrambled” to make it difficult for hackers to see it if a breach occurs.
Data storage is the process of ensuring that it’s very difficult to gain access to encrypted data in the first place.
Both of these mechanisms are incredibly important in not only developing and app for internal or public consumption, but also in keeping data safe from hackers when a consumer accesses data through upload or download.
Modifying Development for a Range of Devices and Operating Systems
Although Android and iOS are the two most commonly used and popular operating systems available today in regards to mobile, you and your development staff need to recognize that different device manufacturers may throw in their own surprises.
For example, while iOS (Apple) is only supported on the iPhone, Android’s OS is used on mobile devices manufactured by Samsung, HTC, LG, and others.
So, even if you have what you think is a secure and well-developed architecture for your app, it may fail on another device running the same operating system.
About the Author: Andrew Rusnak is an author who writes on topics that include Internet security and app development.