In this advanced digital era, mobile apps have become the preferred interaction model for the smart phone users for browsing the Internet or using different capabilities of mobile device. Now these days, Rapid application development (RAD) has become quite popular among app developers because of its various advantages like better app quality, higher speed, good user interface and more projects completed on stipulated time and within the budgetary constraint.
RAD is a suite of software application development techniques used for expedite application development. This approach of software development put more emphasis on development and less emphasis on planning tasks. Therefore, the probability of ineffective security in this type of app development becomes high. This article explains various security services that are required for the rapid developing apps. Here are five things that every rapid app developer should do for enhanced security of app:
- Develop Mobile Security Standards
App developers should develop mobile security standard beforehand and apply them. All businesses have some form of guidelines and standards for the developers to follow when creating apps. Developers must ensure that they have solid security guidelines and standards for all of the technologies that are in use. Furthermore, security of the developed app should not be dependent on third party such as the OS providers or mobile device manufacturers. Therefore, app developers should be careful with the important data they collect as well. If the data is not needed, it should be deleted.
- Knowledge of Mobile Platforms
Mobile applications are developed on various platforms, and each platform has its own APIs that provide platform specific security features. Therefore, having good knowledge of the specific platform for which the application is being designed and adopting that specific code is extremely vital. Though there are various in-built mobile app security features in the platform, yet developers should understand and implement these security features properly for developing a secure and safe application.
- Design or Architecture Testing
Rapid app developers should well understand the risks associated with the mobile applications and its impact on the organization. Therefore, a methodical design and architecture review of the applications should be conducted with the thread modelling technique, which helps in uncovering all the potential risks before the application is actually deployed.
- Manual Verification
After design and architecture testing, manual verification should also be carried out by the app developers for establishing enhanced application security. The level and scope of manual verification can be evaluated on the basis of the amount of potential risk posed by application. Application size and complexity are another factor that will determine multiple levels of verification. This verification will be conducted through penetration testing services and iterative code reviews.
- Dynamic and Static Verification
During secure mobile app development, app developers should evaluate the mobile code using the static approaches and ensure that the bad API’s are not triggered. In addition to this, they should ensure that the other app security controls are coded appropriately. There are very little techniques available yet for the dynamic verification. However, the dynamic and static verification are improving at very fast pace.
With over 1,000 app security vulnerabilities in existence today, app developers cannot possibly be expected to create complete secure applications without proper training. There are many great application security companies that are providing reliable application security services with the help of well-trained professions. Organizations can take help from these security companies to develop highly secure apps for their users.
