Why is Mobile App Security Testing Important?

When an app has poor end-to-end encryption and security vulnerabilities, it becomes an easy target for malicious parties that cause the app to compromise user privacy. Such compromise leads to the theft of private information, which is often sensitive data like personal chat, credit card numbers, bank details, etc. Leak of any kind of data has a huge negative impact on the organization’s reputational and financial loss. Hence, mobile app security testing is crucial to prevent user data and restore the organization’s reputation.

With the advancement of technology, hackers are trying to find new loopholes in the application and try to steal data. To secure an application from any advanced hacking techniques, companies are making hefty investments in security testing. Security testing is one of the significant testing approaches that is essential to safeguard the user data, while builds trust, creates loyal customer base which will eventually improve the ROI.

What is Mobile App Security Testing?

Mobile app security testing is testing the app in the development stage to fix any vulnerabilities or security bugs that might be present and lead to compromising the system’s security. It involves simulating attacks on the app to find out errors and fix them to ensure users’ data protection of the highest order when the app is released for public use. Security testing is conducted for all kinds of apps namely native applications, web applications, and hybrid mobile applications.

What Does the Security Testing Process Involve?

The mobile app security testing process starts by understanding the app’s purpose and the type of data it needs to handle. Testers then use various testing methods to assess the app’s vulnerabilities. The security testing process involves:

• Analyzing how the app receives, stores, and sends data
• The decryption of the encrypted parts
• App de-compilation and code analysis
• Finding weaknesses in the code
• Fixing the security vulnerabilities with updated code

How to Carry Out Mobile App Security Testing?

Mobile app security testing can be carried out by:

• Defining the goal of the security testing
• Understanding why exactly you are carrying out security testing
• Identifying potential threats
• Analyzing threats
• Exploiting threats
• Providing fixes

Why is Mobile App Security Testing Important?

Security testing primarily helps to improve the app’s security system and ensures users’ data protection. In addition, it also provides numerous other benefits that help businesses and end-users alike. Here is a look at some of the benefits of security testing for mobile apps.

Provides protection against malicious attacks: As the vulnerabilities are identified and fixed, security testing provides more protection against real-world attacks. The common method used in security testing includes predicting and simulating attacks that might happen on your app. Thus, it ensures that your app will be protected against attacks it is most likely to face.

Prevents monetary and reputational losses: A security breach can result in massive tangible and intangible losses, primarily for the business. The effects can last long-term as customers might feel hesitant to use the app after a data breach.

Mobile app security testing ensures protection against data breaches and other attacks. This, in turn, saves you from the financial and reputational losses associated with security breaches.

Tests the responsiveness of the security team: Mobile app security testing is a great way to test the responsiveness of the security team. You can analyze the time required for the team to apply fixes for the detected vulnerabilities. Time is a crucial parameter when a security breach happens in reality. The slower the security team’s response, the deeper the consequences of the attack. Moreover, security testing methods, including browser testing, also help check the quality and accuracy of the response. The security team doesn’t just need to be quick, they must also ensure that the security breach is fixed completely and leaves no gaps for future instances.

Enhances customer trust and user experience: If your app is completely secured, it increases the user’s trust in your business. The users are more confident about using your app and sharing data with you. Moreover, since users are not worried about risking their private data, it enhances the user experience.

Another way security testing helps enhance user experience is by improving the app’s responsiveness. The testing process helps find and eliminate any issues that might be slowing down the application. Thus, the faster the application and the more responsive it is, the better the user experience.

Ensures compliance: Mobile app security testing enables businesses to meet industry security standards. It can help with ISO certifications related to managing information security, adhering to GDPR and other data security laws, and meeting state and federal requirements. This can save the enterprise from financial and legal issues in the future. For example, businesses can get fined heavily for not meeting GDPR requirements for mobile apps collecting data of EU citizens.

Provides increased return on investment:  Mobile app security testing can help prevent financial losses in various cases, which was discussed in the earlier point. Thus, investing in security testing proves a great return on investment. You end up spending a fraction of the amount on security testing compared to the financial losses that occurred due to a data breach.

Conclusion

Security testing of mobile apps is a continuous process that has been proven beneficial for app developers as well as the end-user. Mobile app security testing helps businesses find and fix vulnerabilities before hackers can find a way and exploit them. This saves businesses and users from a myriad of tangible and intangible losses.

When developing a mobile app, organizations should include security as the primary testing parameter along with other functional and non-functional aspects. This ensures the safety of user data and provides a seamless user experience, giving a sense of being completely secured. A win-win situation for both, the business as well as the user as happy customers will bring in more customers either by word of mouth or through positive online reviews.