While the rise of mobile applications has simplified digital navigation for users, it has also led to increasing security issues that threaten users’ private data. Mobile apps benefit users in various ways. For instance, mobile apps make the shopping experience seamless for users. You can interact with other people, book flights and hotels, make transactions, play games, surf the internet and perform even more professional tasks using mobile apps.
Mobile apps open a world of opportunities for users in 2025. But it also introduces the risk of personal data theft due to poor app security. In this article, we will dive into understanding why mobile app security is paramount. The article also entails best practices for mobile app security for developers and companies doing mobile app development.
What is Mobile App Security?
The practice of mobile app security deals with safeguarding mobile applications from outside threats and vulnerabilities. The rising number of Android mobile apps and iOS apps is significant. These applications cater to a wide audience, providing them feasibility of using their private information on their platforms. However, outside threats like tampering, malware, key loggers, reverse engineering, and other fraudulent attacks threaten the privacy of app users.
Mobile applications keep sensitive and private information of users related to their identity. It also records personal information like bank account details, email, phone number, address, PIN code, etc. Any security threat to a mobile app can impact users big time, as they will lose all their sensitive data. Data theft is a significant result of weak mobile app security.
Did you know that an analysis of half a million mobile apps highlights that approximately two-thirds of the apps use weak or broken encryption? Let’s see how developers can enhance mobile app security in 2025. We will discover the best practices for mobile app security.
How to Secure Mobile Apps in 2025
Providing Safe Data Storage
Securing mobile apps is important because they store significant and sensitive user data. When exposed, the attackers can steal sensitive user data that leads to identity theft, identity loss and other severe consequences. This happens when developers store crucial user data in an insecure location. When developers store data in plain text in local storage, SQLite and shared preferences, it’s at risk of being stolen. Hence, providing safe data storage with adequate encryption is paramount.
- The first defence against attackers is providing secure data storage in applications.
- Developers can resolve this issue by following secure coding standards. They can minimise the security risks by following the OWASP mobile security testing guide.
- Developers must obfuscate the application source code to make it difficult for attackers to reverse engineer. The tools like iOS Obfuscator and ProGuard for Android help in minimising code exposure.
Weak Authentication and Poor Authorisation Practices
When developers provide poor authentication in the app, it creates a front door for attackers. On the other hand, providing poor authorisation in the mobile app creates a back door for hackers and outsiders to access the app.
Authentication deals with “who” can access the app, while authorisation deals with “what” users can do within the app. Upon authentication, users create their identity on the application. Users have unique credentials to register and log in to the app. But by employing poor authorisation practices, attackers can gain access to the user’s account and cause disruption.
Attackers can gain control of the app if developers have not enabled multi-factor authentication in the app. Allowing easy passwords in the app, like a username as a password or a simple combination of characters like “1234567”, can leave the app vulnerable to outside attacks. In such cases, it’s important to follow effective authentication and authorisation mechanisms to keep the app secure from attackers –
- Setting a password isn’t enough to secure apps from outsiders and attackers. Attackers can bypass the security and steal sensitive user data. Hence, developers must enable MFA (multifactor authentication) to add an extra layer of security. For instance, once users enter their password, they need to provide the one-time password or unique code sent to their email or phone number.
- The attackers cannot log in to the app using a password alone. They cannot bypass the multifactor authentication mechanism.
- Another advanced form of authentication is biometric and token-based authentication. Facial recognition and fingerprints are unique identifiers. Such authentications make it difficult for attackers to gain control of the app.
- Developers can provide mobile app security using token-based authentication, which uses tokens instead of passwords. It does not allow reusing the same credentials for logging into the app.
Poor Encryption
Another prominent issue behind poor app security is poor encryption. It is important to protect sensitive user information through encryption, especially when the data is in transmission. Suppose you make a purchase using a shopping mobile app.
Attackers can gain access to sensitive user data when it’s in transmission to exploit user identity or steal money. It happens when developers use outdated encryption mechanisms like SSL 3.0 in place of their latest versions. When the data transmission is done in plain text form, it is easier for hackers to intercept and read. Robust encryption ensures that your data remains unreadable even if hackers gain access to the app.
- Developers must store sensitive user data by following 256-bit AES encryption. Secure transmission is possible by using TLS 1.3 to avoid eavesdropping.
- Developers must employ safe data storage solutions like Keychain on iOS and Android keystore for Android app security.
- Keeping the encryption keys within the code is one of the major shortcomings in an app that compromises user security. Developers must store the encryption keys in a safe location for secure key management and enhanced mobile app security.
Secure Session Management
Weak user sessions can lead to hijacking, data stealing and account takeover. Session management deals with user activity on the app. The session ends when the user stops using the app, or it can log out on its own due to inactivity. In any case, if developers do not secure the active and inactive user sessions, attackers can hijack the sessions and take control of the app. Weak session management compromises mobile app security, where attackers can exploit sensitive user data or impersonate them.
- Developers must follow the auto-logout mechanism, which terminates the user session if there is inactivity. Attackers cannot gain control of the app as it prevents unauthorised access.
- Developers can add a remote sign-out mechanism that allows users to log out from anywhere. In addition, they should use secure tokens to authorise and authenticate every user request. The tokens can be revised, revoked or terminated at any time.
Using Insecure Third-Party Libraries and Dependencies
Businesses focusing on app development in 2025 have one goal: providing the ultimate user experience to customers. But what if, in doing so, you are making it difficult to use the app due to its security issues and unfixed security patches?
Developers focus on everything – intuitive designs, efficient workflows, a minimalistic interface and flexibility in app usage. Dveelopers use third-party libraries for UI components. They also rely on third-party analytics and authentication tools.
Sometimes, relying on outdated libraries leads to security risks. The issue occurs when developers do not update the libraries. It leaves unpatched security vulnerabilities behind that impact sensitive user data. Hackers can inject malware into the open-source libraries. When developers make use of open-source malware-injected or weak libraries in the app, they weaken the app from within. Hence, it is important to minimise dependency on third-party and insecure libraries to develop an app.
- Perform rigorous testing of the mobile app to find any vulnerabilities and back doors.
- Only use vetted libraries and third-party APIs in your app. They should not bring any security vulnerabilities that may compromise user data in the future.
- Follow security guidelines and comply with GDPR, which is a general data protection regulation in the EU. Follow PCI-DSS for mobile payment security. Use HIPAA for healthcare-related mobile apps handling and storing patient data. In the end, make your app ISO 27001 compliant, which provides best practices for general information security.
To Sum Up
Finally, you can implement key security features like end-to-end encryption, which uses time time-based token to protect the user session. It is important to embed security in the entire app development lifecycle. Developers must perform security-focused testing of the application. Application testing will require running it on various operating systems.
Any vulnerabilities in the third-party libraries or APIs may impact overall app security. Hence, developers should focus on enabling holistic security in the application, starting from its design to its deployment. Successful app optimisation also helps you in fixing security bugs and vulnerabilities that you can explore.
In a fast-paced technological landscape, choose the right application development company for your project needs. Vervelogic, a leading mobile app development company New York, can provide advanced mobile app development solutions to your unique needs. If you’re looking to hire mobile app developers New York, you can reach out to us. Partner with VerveLogic to leverage the services of secure Android and iOS mobile app development.
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