Mobile apps are, hands down, one of the best things that have happened to businesses and people in general.
Do you have to market your product?
Do you want to get instant feedback from your customers?
As a customer, do you want a company to serve you faster and better while providing you with various options?
A mobile app is the answer to so many questions. It has become a permanent fixture in everyone’s lives today. But, doesn’t buying something entail spending money as well?
Doesn’t easy communication mean exchanging data? And sometimes, very personal and sensitive data over the phone? The frequent use of mobile apps has started raising some very important questions about the security of our personal lives.
It is usually an app that deals either with monetary transactions or that has important or sensitive information stored with it. It could be used against either the business in question or its app users, who hackers target.
They disable the security of the application, mess with the key features, and finally steal all the data they want and create havoc.
Therefore, healthcare, banking, and even e-commerce-related companies are constantly struggling to get better application security.
The latest development in the hacking community, though, seems to be keeping a close eye on the chats that take place in an app.
Suddenly, businesses all around have realized how chats have led them to increased vulnerability to any cyber threat.
The situation is appalling, to say the least. Because chats are again a feature used by apps representing different kinds of companies. It belongs to a wide variety of industries.
So again, the most attractive targets become healthcare, e-commerce, banking, and other industries.
The Modern Rules Of Secure Chat Mobile App.
The solution now lies in every custom mobile application development company pulling up its sleeves and getting down to work.
The work here is to first understand an app’s security, especially adhering to how chats work, and then make it stronger and more reliable.
- Secure the Data Storage
The idea is to store as little data on the client’s side as possible; that will aid in making your app more secure.
But, numerous times, you won’t be able to get out of the tricky situation when you must let some sensitive information remain stored on the client side.
In such cases, you don’t have to worry; you just have to come up with a more sophisticated technical solution to provide high-security storage to your client.
You can use realm.io, which encrypts data and helps reduce the app development time.
First, it uses OpenSSL. Second, on providing it with a 64-bit encryption key, AES-256 transparently encrypts and decrypts the Realm data, following it up with SHA-2 HMAC hash verification.
In terms of framework, either Realm or CoreData would do for iOS development. But, you will, of course, have to make sure to use data protection.
You can go to the SQLCipher library, a third-party open-source library for SQLite. It is a very frequently used local storage for CoreData.
SQLCipher library provides 256-bit AES encryption. It is excellent, except for this one small problem. It takes a lot of memory space, slowing down the application’s performance.
- Secure the Exchange of Data
The platform has set certain rules and regulations. And those of the industry to which the app belongs.
For example, healthcare and banking are such industries that would, without a question, require detailed information about a person.
An app that represents a hospital or a bank, hence, could put the said person in a great deal of danger if the sensitive data about them were to run loose.
For mobile app developers today, ensuring safe and secure communication between clients and servers and strictly adhering to the platform and industry guidelines is paramount.
So as to not let any data or the process of exchange/ transfer of data be vulnerable to any cyber threat, you should always set up TLS/SSL. Upon it, you can add an additional level of security. In case the data is encrypted prior to sending it via TLS.
- Use End-to-End Encryption
One of the most popular ways to market these days is for companies to review some of the messages to get a better idea about what their target audience is like and what they like.
These companies, then, won’t indulge in end-to-end encryption. It’s because, even if they intercept, they will get the message in a scrambled state (encrypted). They would never be able to decipher it.
It could hurt their marketing campaign. It could have them look for options other than checking people’s personal messages. But the special algorithm to induce end-to-end encryption would ensure better security of their application.
It’s a challenge for mobile app developers and every mobile application development company out there to live up to the expectations of the client company and the end users. That, too, in terms of outstanding performance, creative output, and robust security of an app, is an understatement.
But, understatement or not, it is the truth of today, and for an app to do well without creating a catastrophe. It is a necessity as well.
