In May this year, Australian airline Qantas reported a data breach in its mobile app, exposing passengers' travel information to unsuspecting users with the authority to cancel tickets. Just last year, zero days in Apple's iMessage affected its 900 active million users across its devices.
A decade ago, cybersecurity was a hotly discussed topic. In 2024, the discourse around mobile app security has gained momentum. It is a crucial area to watch as the number of mobile users grows massively( 7.1 billion) due to increased reliance on mobile in an age of critical business dependence and growing demand for convenience with quality.
Last year, the total number of app downloads reached a staggering 257 billion, and the revenue brought by these apps totaled $932 billion. Today, apps are a gold mine of personal information, including names, addresses, and credit card details. Hackers and threat actors exploit mobile app vulnerabilities. App development companies are looking for innovative ways to deliver secure apps.
The changing digital landscape, with rapid advancement in sophisticated technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), requires a clear understanding of current and future trends. In this blog, we look into the aspects of mobile app security and the recent trends that will define 2024 and beyond.
What is mobile app security?
When talking about mobile app security, we refer to the technologies and security procedures that safeguard against cyberattacks and data theft.
Mobile app security is a critical aspect of mobile app development, and developers infuse various security measures, such as encryption, role management, access control, and biometrics, into the software development lifecycle to protect user-sensitive data.
Mobile apps are the fulcrum of businesses today. Businesses collect different data types, including personal details, location, browsing history, and transactions, to enhance user experience and serve better. But are they taking robust measures to protect the data?
The soft spots in mobile app security
Flaws in mobile app security, such as improper authentication, weak encryption, insecure data transmission, or vulnerability in the network itself, open up weak spots for data breaches. End users fall prey to phishing, man-in-the-middle attacks, site disclosure, and account theft.
Jailbreaking (for iOS users) and rooting (for Android users) enable bad actors to access your devices, compromising their security. Some malicious activities include data theft, malware distribution, privilege escalation, botnet creation, keylogging, installation of insecure apps, and evasion of security measures.
Sometimes, developers unwittingly fail to follow best practices during the design phase of mobile app development, introducing errors later on. Insecure coding practices and a lack of rigorous testing are potential vulnerabilities.
A recent case is Twilio, which offers a popular two-factor authentication (2FA) app for additional Security. The hacker exploited insecure API tokens to expose 33 million phone numbers from Authy accounts.
Mobile app security trends shaping the present
Let's examine the mobile app security landscape for the rest of 2024 and beyond.
1. Rooting for zero trust security
Evolving threats require effective precision-based security measures in mobile app development methods to protect businesses and people. The zero-trust security framework stands as a bulwark, helping to neutralize various threats. Based on the never-trust, always-verify principle, it uses constant verification to surveil the network.
Understanding that threats can come from both inside and outside effectively eliminates risks before they build up. Given the nature of mobile apps, they operate in both secure and insecure environments, so vetting access requests and keeping users at least privileged levels helps in swift threat detection.
Finance, healthcare, and supply chain sectors face repeated cyber attacks and will proactively adopt zero-trust principles in their business mobile apps. Developers will use identity and access management (IAM) solutions such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), and role-based access control (RBAC). These granular access controls will enable mobile app development companies to design apps for businesses with a security-first approach.
2. Real-time threat detection through AI /ML
Real-time threat detection and monitoring capabilities thwart data breaches and increase user trust. With its adaptive features, artificial intelligence equips developers and security experts to solve modern security concerns where traditional approaches fail.
In 2024, AI will be used more than ever, with big tech companies boosting research and development. Trained on vast datasets, AI is a perfect fit for mobile app security. It can quickly analyze patterns working on a host of metrics and network traffic and flag security flaws by sensing the minutest deviation in user behavior or anomaly.
The use of AI to audit apps and create hard-to-crack authentication processes will also increase. More apps will come with facial recognition and fingerprint scanning.
3. Stricter Privacy Regulations and Compliance Requirements
As sophisticated attacks increase, privacy and data laws, like GDPR and CCPA, as well as well-defined frameworks that issue mandates for collecting and regulating data on mobile applications, will take center stage in prioritizing personal data safety.
Mobile app development will have to adhere to the privacy-by-design principle. It is designed to protect personal data and keep users safe. Stricter implementation of GDPR principles in mobile app design will increase user trust and spur businesses to look at user safety in a new way.
4. Mobile app development with IoT ecosystem in focus
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technological force today in homes and industries and has influenced how we see life in the flux of interconnected digital products. Most users bring a sense of control to the products in their connected environment via an IoT app.
For example, IoT apps such as Samsung's SmartThings app are compatible with various smart home devices, AI appliances, and voice assistants from the brand but also accommodate other brands, creating a harmonious ecosystem.
However, interconnectedness is also a weak link. The security of sensitive data in the IoT is now a significant concern for app developers and users. The differentiating factor among app development companies is the degree of security measures they can incorporate in the IoT apps.
At Proquantic, we predict a growing trend of advanced security
measures, including encryption, authentication, and data protection in the
connected environment.
5. Focus on secure coding practices
It's not that SDLC doesn't include safe coding practices. However, with the rising rate of data breaches, compromising sensitive user data, and financial loss, developers and companies will sharply focus on this area and devise innovative ways to strengthen it so that its security is the guiding theme all along.
A typical case of coding-introduced vulnerability is rising instances of SQL injection or cross-site scripting (XSS) that results from not properly validating user input. Similarly, missing out on penetration testing or code reviews to identify security flaws opens up soft spots for attacks later in the app structure.
We expect increased adoption of the OWASP Top 10 into mobile app development practices across the spectrum in years to come. Business owners who are getting apps built will be equally interested in how an app development company secures their critical details and transactions.
Emerging contours- Predictions beyond the present
Disruptive technologies have defined much of 2024, with AI leading the way. Businesses are rooting for AI adoption to improve processes and productivity. In this changing dynamics, we present some predictions that are gradually taking shape and spurring the need for robust mobile app security.
With banks' 24/7 availability via mobile apps, the rise in digital payments, economies around the globe embracing innovative, user-friendly digital wallet systems, and banking institutions increasingly using financial apps as the pivot in their omnichannel strategy, technologies like tokenization, encryption, and biometric authentication will become standard practices.
As the need for complex services like authentication, location-specific functions, and targeted content to users increases, more businesses will adopt cloud security solutions as their infrastructure and data move to the cloud.
We are in post-quantum computing eras, defined by powerful computers capable of breaking into the defenses of traditional encryption methods. The adoption of quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms that are equipped to handle threats will see an uptick. The future of mobile app security will adjust and reinvent itself as new threat frontiers open up in a deeply digitalized and enmeshed world, with advanced technologies driving the discourse.
Proquantic leverages cutting-edge tech and the latest mobile app development technologies to deliver future-forward apps. We are here to empower and fortify businesses with sustainable, secure solutions.
