The year 2018 will be marked as the year when the smartphone surpassed the desktop at the level of importance. In fact, it is not difficult to see this phenomenon due to some authentic surveys and reports. The data that gives us a clue how much the mobile apps development sector has yet to expand throughout the Globe. However, the development of applications to run on Windows, Android and iOS goes far beyond creating an attractive interface or apparent usability.
The care taken with data security should be the North of the professionals who aim for long-term growth and the consolidation of their work in an industry that, on the one hand, seems to be totally distant from any crisis, on the other, presents highly voracious competitiveness. Today you will discover 5 errors in the development of mobile apps that you should not commit!
Do Not Worry About Encryption
The greatest technology giants have in cryptography more than special attention. For example, Apple uses, in the development of all its smartphones and iPads with iOS Version 5 or higher, hardware encryption, ensuring solid protection against any attempts to intercept data stored on the device.
Do you want your app to rank among the most prestigious in the market? So, do not forget that encryption algorithms become obsolete with extreme ease. In addition, most of the apps require the insertion of personal data (such as credit card number and CPF) to purchase features. If your app does not use any encryption algorithm or uses weak keys, millions of users of your product may be at the mercy of cyber criminals.
Use codes from other developers
There is a lot of time to develop a mobile app from the beginning, but part of that time can be saved because of the huge amount of code on the web. However, be very careful because here the bargain can be expensive: many criminals create codes and make them available on the network, in the hope that they will be used by some developer. This will give the hacker free access to all the information he needs after the app is released. Search well, only use known source codes and read line by line to avoid being surprised later.
Do not perform safety tests
Just as you would not dare to launch a smartphone app without performance testing (back-end load and stress simulation, for example), adherence (check on adherence to device guidelines and OS device) and functionality, previous security assessments are essential to avoid generating future millionaires damages to a universe of customers, thus avoiding an irreversible blemish on their image in the market.
Test each entry to check for any security breaches and be sure that this evaluation can be done in two complementary ways: static and dynamic testing. The first (more theoretical) approach analyzes the program code, without, however, executing it. Here, the focus is to find bugs and malicious code that open up security holes in the application. Through this analysis, it is possible, for example, to find a SQL Injection type failure if a data entry is detected (in the code conferencing process) that is passed directly to the database without any validation.
Already in dynamic analysis (practice), the developer will behave like a hacker (the correct term would be “cracker”), seeking vulnerabilities during the process of running the app. This analysis is complementary to the first one because the vulnerabilities of an application go far beyond code failures: there are, in many cases, third-party components whose source codes are unknown; likewise, an incorrect configuration on the web server can generate vulnerability.
Do not develop a plan against vulnerabilities linked to data capture
Mobile devices are fundamentally different from PCs because of their characteristic of recording short-term information for as long as possible in order to reduce their response time in data access. This makes mobile applications more susceptible to data capture, which can be minimized, for example, by requiring a password to access the app.
Do not use a robust platform in application development
This is the most relevant of the recommendations. The significant difference between the various platforms in the market, in terms of resources, robustness, integration capacity and reliability, reinforces the need to research with caution. They are already on the market, for example, the mobile application development has integrated mobile development platforms, which allow the same app to be developed for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, Windows Desktop and Linux, ensuring full portability between platforms.
Conclusion
It is always helpful to have somewhere to start. The issues presented here are not sacred, but, first of all, they are a guide to building your application more effectively and organized. Once you are ready to get started, you should also know that building a mobile application’s technique is the easy part. Getting customers is where the real challenge lies.
