The security of mobile devices and software products remains to be one of the most important concerns for both developers and users. But while users just need to follow at least the most basic rules that help them to protect their devices and sensitive data (for example, set strong passwords or avoid unprotected public connections), developers every year have to find more and more sophisticated approaches to protecting their products. With their new tools and methods, hackers and other unfair players definitely won’t allow developers to relax in 2023.
And in this article, we’d like to cover the key mobile application security trends that will shape the direction of development of this sphere which is still considered to be in its early stages. While the functionality and capacities of mobile apps that we can see on the market are continuously expanding thanks to the hard work of developers, there are still a lot of things to do when it comes to their security.
According to various studies, the percentage of apps that have at least one security vulnerability that can result in critical data loss is rather high (around 70-80%). And what is extremely alarming is that in these studies, experts analyzed not some entertainment apps but finance solutions that look very attractive to hackers. That’s why if your company has custom mobile apps or you are just considering an option to launch an application, we strongly recommend you read this article to be aware of the latest mobile app security trends.
Trend 1. Less attention to the detection of jailbroken and rooted devices
Some years ago, mobile app developers widely used various mechanisms for detecting jailbroken and rooted devices for finding potential threats that could pose serious risks to applications. We should admit that it is still a very popular approach but its popularity and importance are expected to decrease already in the nearest future. Already today we can observe that a lot of mobile software developers prefer to focus on more solid protection methods. And there are some reasons for it.
- Today there are already a lot of sophisticated methods to “hide” rooted and jailbroken devices from all detection mechanisms.
- Rooted and jailbroken devices can be also used for non-malicious purposes. But when developers use their detection mechanisms, these devices will be found as well which will have a serious impact on the user experience of the owners of these devices.
Now there is a clear need to find other mobile security solutions that are not limited to root and jailbreak detection only as this approach has already lost its efficiency. Instead of looking for devices that can be potentially used by unfair players, it will be more sensible to concentrate all efforts on defining potential threats and ensuring advanced protection at different levels.
Trend 2. Exploration of new mobile vulnerabilities
Today developers already know a lot of different vulnerabilities that are considered to be common on the market. It’s already a well-known fact that standard security measures do not work when it comes to the protection of many apps. But the key issue is that even now not all vulnerabilities can be uncovered. In many apps, there are still a lot of vulnerabilities that can’t be detected by developers but it doesn’t mean that they won’t be detected and used by hackers and fraudsters, especially given the fact that they are continuously looking for new ways to get access to users’ data and assets.
It means that another key area that mobile app developers need to focus attention on is a close consideration of their apps with a view to detecting new vulnerabilities and addressing them in a proper way.
Trend 3. Introduction of new mobile app protection solutions
It is clear that when the demand is growing, somebody needs to satisfy it. That’s why we can expect to see a lot of new mobile application protection solutions that will be offered on the market. Many of these solutions promise that they will ensure the security of your mobile apps quickly and easily. Their developers claim that these solutions will be able to check the security of any mobile app. But can they really do it so? Theoretically, yes. However, do they have the required level of accuracy in their functioning? That’s a completely different question. And there are some doubts about whether mobile app developers can fully rely on such solutions.
Instead of a final word
As you can see, mobile app security is still a rather pressing issue for developers and today they need to do their best to ensure the strong protection of their products. At the moment, there is no such solution that can fully guarantee you absolute protection of your mobile application. But there are a lot of expectations regarding the enhancement of mobile app security already in the nearest future.