Security on Apps: The Risks Are Real

Applications today are more than just driving sales. These apps represent a critical link between companies and their customers — and, sadly, also an opportunity for hackers. Security on apps is a constantly evolving threat, making it essential that companies have the proper tools at their disposal — as well as an IT team with the knowledge and experience to use them.

Here are some eye-opening mobile app security statistics:

• Almost 75% of apps would not pass even a basic security test
• 83 percent of apps have at least one security flaw
• Mobile security vulnerabilities are found in 91 percent and 95 percent of iOS and Android apps, respectively

With so much at stake in today’s interconnected world, data privacy is essential for everyone. Therefore, reviewing and practicing mobile application security requirements is crucial, both for personal use and on company networks.

What Does My Phone Know About Me?

Every time you power on your smartphone, you test your data security and privacy. To understand the basics of mobile app security best practices, you must first identify the smartphone features and browsing activities that can jeopardize you or your company.

The Places You Visit

Androids and iPhones feature tracking software that can pinpoint your whereabouts anytime. Phone manufacturers use this information for profiling purposes. The good news is you can deactivate this feature at your discretion by changing your settings. The tracking is energy-consumptive and therefore lessens the duration of each battery-charge cycle.

The Things You Tell Siri

On iOS smartphones, Apple’s Siri virtual assistant remembers everything you enter and speak. Each time you ask for recommendations or tell Siri about what you like, Siri will use this information to suggest places to visit and products to try. Siri will also recognize your voice and how you pronounce certain words. Though the assistant uses randomized IDs to protect anonymity, Apple has admitted to spying on users through Siri.

Personal IDs

As a smartphone user, you can store and memorize your passwords on your phone for instant access to various apps and sites. However, your carrier should not collect and use this information. To try to combat such invasive practices, Google announced this spring that it would allow customers to see what data smartphone apps are collecting about them.

Passwords

Most apps will allow you to store your login and password info within the program’s memory. While this can serve as an easy access gateway to various other programs, it can also increase the odds of an ID leak. The safest way around this problem is to memorize your login and password info, which is easy if you adopt a personal date/initial code and give it a sequence of alphanumeric variations based on the first letters of the apps in question. You can also write down each login and password on a notepad and manually enter them into each app as you need them, though caution is required to ensure the notebook is kept in a secure place.

Messages and Texts

When you send a text or engage in an iMessage conversation over an iPhone, Apple stores the messages for an unspecified length of time. The company does this to ensure the notes go to the intended recipient. However, Apple has not specified how long this retention period lasts, whether it is one day or a full year.

Google Accounts

As an Android user, all your apps connect to Google. Therefore, each time you pull up the apps for Chrome or YouTube, your phone connects to your Google accounts, giving the tech giant access to all the information you enter into these apps from your smartphone. If desired, you can stop the company from recording your whereabouts at any given time.

Your Traveling Speed

Your phone records information about your habits, including the speed of your commutes between home, work, and other destinations you frequently visit for shopping or leisure. Based on your starting location, a phone can determine how long it will take before you arrive at your intended destination. The phone will also know the days and times you travel to and from work and other routine activities.

Though this tracking and artificial intelligence can be convenient in certain situations, some users dislike this type of knowing talk-back from a smartphone. You can always shut these notifications off by deactivating location services in your phone’s user settings, but you will also need to disable any location-tracking apps that might be running in the background.

Work with New Era Technology for the Best Mobile App Security

Despite the range of application security best practices users can enact in this day and age, it is still challenging to ensure the data security and privacy of the information on your smartphone or company network. Contact New Era Technology today to learn more about our IT Services at solutions@neweratech.com.