Security, security, security, whether it’s home, country, human, website, mobile application or be it any case, it has become grist of the gossip mill. Here we discuss how you prevent apps from hacking?
Talking particularly about the technical world, then security glitches are nothing new here. Neither a tech giant Google nor the most popular media app Facebook is 100% secured and safe. Therefore as a developer, you should not take the security of your app as for granted. It is because despite having innumerable features, a single error or bug turns your most amazing android app to a victim of hacker tactic. As a result, it becomes difficult to strengthen the bond of trust with the users.
So in this post, we have enlisted some basic, yet effective ways to prevent android apps from hacking. However, before jumping to any security measure, we feel the necessity to discuss some most common hacking tactics, which badly influence the user experience for the android apps.
- Phishing: In simpler words, it can be understood as an email attack in which a hacker attempts to withdraw confidential credentials as a trustworthy entity.
- Brute force attack: A hit and trial method to get the correct username and password so that it becomes easy to find access to a website or server.
- USB malware: As its name implies, malware spread via USB drives. It plays a significant role in many infectious campaigns.
- SQL injection: In this, an attacker or hacker interferes with the data of an app and begins to execute the commands itself.
- Buffer Overflow: there is a defined region where data is temporarily stored, however when we put more than the buffer length, it results in an overflow. And, that extra information opens the door for malpractices.
These tactics are merely some drops of rain; hackers have successfully created the big oceans to drown the entire tech world. So, let’s adopt ‘prevention is better than cure’ policy before it’s too late.
Token-based authentication
Undoubtedly, hacking is a no more difficult task for professional hackers. The latest technologies, enough time and skills are the best friends of a hacker which support him to hack any system. And in case, your app doesn’t use the proper authentication method, then nothing less, it is just a warm invite to major fraudulent actions.
So, it is advisable to use token-based authentication in your android app so that access to your app is provided to the only verified requests. By saying this, we mean that when an API request sent to the server for accessing an app, tokenization system verifies the requests for authenticity and respond it only if, the system found that request a genuine one.
Android keychain
Have you ever noticed that Facebook doesn’t ask you to log in every time the application is opened, until or unless you logged out? Also, at the time of log out, it asks whether you want to save your password for next time you log in or not.
It is all due to the Facebook stores your password in its storage container safely. And, Android keychain is the real name of that storage container, which is preinstalled in the android devices. So as a developer, you can use it to safely stack up all the sensitive data of users there instead of p-list and NSUserDefaults.
Fingerprint lock
Although the chances of two people having the same fingerprint are not null, however, the probability is comparatively lower than that of matching the user name and password with someone else. So, it is better to use finger touch id lock for log in the android app.
Use encryption
Another step to secure the confidential data of users is encryption. It is a simple process in which a developer uses some algorithm keys to convert the simple plain data into an unreadable format or better say, Ciphertext. So if you also want to save your app from cybercriminals, then use encryption as much as you can while saving the confidential data in the local database.
Dissemble the symbol table
In technical terminology, reverse engineering is the process of decoding or deconstructing the man-made object to unfold its design or architecture. Hackers use it the most to get access in the app or to take away the confidential data of users from there. So, either you can change the name of classes in preprocessor or dissemble the symbol table after wrapping up the project. In short, it is the right time to move ahead and take some actions to prevent your Android app from hacking and other malpractices. Give 2 minutes read to this post and if still, you are left with any doubt or want to learn how to implement them properly, then you may refer any online tutorial or guide.
