Educating Users About App Security

Education of users about app security is vital to its digital trustworthiness. Failure to adequately secure apps leads to data breaches that cause immediate and lasting harm for brands, so how can I educate and inform app users about the security measures in place and reassure them about their privacy?

Make sure that your App only uses the minimum level of privilege needed for its functionality, for instance by not accessing consumer data such as contacts that is irrelevant to its main task.

Educate And Inform Users About Security measures

App users need to be informed about the security measures in place for their privacy when using apps. These may include two-factor authentication or security questions and offering strong passwords with frequent changes required from users. Likewise, apps should use encryption so hackers cannot gain access to sensitive data without knowing its secret key.

At all stages of development, it is also vitally important to test an app for vulnerabilities. This means using operating system emulators, simulating attacks and testing under real device conditions; all to identify weaknesses which require fixing before becoming serious issues.

App developers must also ensure their apps comply with internationally recommended standards and practices, never seeking unrelated permissions that don’t relate directly to its purpose, with data sharing policies clearly laid out to users. They should avoid third-party libraries which might contain security vulnerabilities not detected during coding processes.

Third-party APIs

Third-party APIs provide an efficient way of making apps more functional without having to start from scratch, saving both time and money by offering pre-built features and functionalities that save developers both time and effort. Unfortunately, they also expose enterprises to potential security risks should employees not comply with best practices when using them.

Third-party APIs (application programming interfaces, or APIs for short) connect apps by sharing data or software functionality between them. For instance, ride-hailing app Uber utilizes third-party mapping APIs to integrate map functionality into its website or mobile application – saving both time and effort that would otherwise go towards developing their own maps from scratch.

Public and private APIs exist in two forms; public being open for any developer while charging businesses based on how often calls were made to their servers. Examples of public APIs include YouTube, Google analytics and Facebook; these third-party APIs are popularly used by webmasters and bloggers because they reduce server load while providing analytics tracking tools.

Encryption 

Developers need to ensure app integrity by making sure data transferred from devices is encrypted prior to being transferred from them, protecting user data against unauthorized users accessing it or its leakage. Furthermore, developers should utilize code signing certificates as another measure to authenticate an app’s source and confirm its integrity without being modified in any way.

Companies, after being hit by high-profile data breaches such as WannaCry and NotPetya, are taking security more seriously and investing in penetration testing and threat modeling programs to ensure that their applications remain safe from threats.

Operating system emulators are being utilized to test apps for vulnerabilities and ensure APIs don’t expose user data, while employing the principle of least privilege by only requesting essential permissions that support app functionality and employ active tamper detection to warn users when code has been altered or changed.

Educate Users About Privacy

App users must be informed and educated on the privacy measures in place to secure their data, such as transit encryption. Transit encryption protects usernames, passwords, API keys and other important data sent between a device and server from being intercepted by digital snoops and other threats that might try to breach it.

As with data privacy laws, such as California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA), compliance is key for apps available in California. With the iubenda Privacy Policy Editor making compliance easy and speeding up development processes for compliant policies.

Your privacy policy must include a clause outlining how app users can exercise their data rights, such as accessing, correcting, amending, exporting and deleting their information. Furthermore, it’s also wise to clearly outline how any significant modifications to the policy will be communicated back to app users.