Apps are an integral part of our daily life. There are all types of mobile apps that range from ordering food to ones that help you sleep. There are also plenty of social media apps as well as ones that tell you when to go to the bathroom while you’re watching a movie. There is literally an app for everything now. There are 2.87 million apps on the Google play store alone. It is very hard to imagine life without mobile apps.

Mobile apps carry a lot of data. It includes your personal information, banking information, location, business transactions, and a lot of other details. A breach in data can have severe consequences for your business or personal life. In the United States, the total cost suffered due to the data breaches was nearly $8.64 million in 2020.

Data that businesses rely on to serve their customers is always a target for criminals. Your business will lose the trust of its customers if there is a data breach. A good reputation is a prized asset for any business and just one episode will damage the reputation of the brand sometimes even beyond repair.

Let’s dive into some of the more damaging consequences that a data breach can bring.

Financial

A financial data breach is one of the most hard-hitting consequences that a business will have to deal with. This can include compensating customers, legal fees, investigating the breach, investment into new security measures among many others.

Reputation

As already mentioned this may turn out to be devastating to the business. Along with losing the trust of existing customers, you lose the ability to attract new customers. Nobody likes to interact with a business if they feel that it is not secure enough.

Downtime

Business operations will be badly affected in the aftermath of a data breach. You may have to shut down operations completely for a proper investigation and to estimate damages. This may take weeks or even months. The havoc this will create and the revenue loss that will occur can be enormous. There will be a lot of difficulties that have to be overcome before the business can recover.

Compensation/Legal action

If people find their data has been compromised they can take legal action and claim compensation. Equifax had to pay more than $700 million to customers all over the US after there was a major data breach in 2017. For small businesses, legal fees and compensation claims can be crippling and even shut down a business for good.

Personal data

A breach may lead to the loss of sensitive personal data. This can be devastating to individuals. If a patient loses his/her data, it will have a very adverse effect on their treatment. Loss of biometric data, credit card information, etc. will have terrible consequences on people’s lives. It doesn’t just affect the businesses but all of your customers’ personal lives as well.

App security

App security is an absolute must. We have seen what devastation data breaches can cause. For companies such as SDI security starts from the very first code we write. Security is always a priority for us from the beginning until the end.

We will run through some of the best practices which will keep an app safe.

Secure code

Malicious code affects more than 11 million devices at any given time. This happens since there are a lot of bugs and vulnerabilities in the code. Security of the code should be ensured from day one.

Professional coders should always minify and obfuscate the code so that it cannot be reverse-engineered.

Testing

Continuous testing should also be done. There shouldn’t be any compromise on this aspect. It’s only through continuous testing that bugs can be identified and fixed. This testing should be done at every stage of development, not just the end.

Encryption

Every single piece of data in the app should be encrypted. Even if the data is stolen, without the key it is all going to look like gibberish. The power of encryption is such that the FBI had to ask permission to access iPhones. If they cannot, even the hackers cannot.

Cautious while using libraries

It is essential to be doubly careful while using third-party libraries. The library could have a security flaw that will enable attackers to hack the system. It is better to use internal repositories. However, in the case, that third-party libraries are necessary proper policy controls should be maintained and the code should be tested thoroughly before being used.

Safe API

API keys play a vital role in app development. Only API’s that are authorized and coded properly should be used. Experts recommend that APIs be authorized centrally for maximum security.

Educate users

The users should be informed of the best practices they should follow to avoid a breach. The most important is to use a strong password. The apps should also be designed to accept only strong passwords which should be renewed periodically. Multi-factor authentication, biometric authentication are some of the options that can be used especially in cases where apps are using sensitive data.

Why SDI

For developing an app that is very secure and at the same time highly user-friendly get in touch with us. Our quality standards are quite ruthless and involve constant testing, as we are very much aware that new threats are always around the corner. We are obsessed with encryption and we give our all to make a first-rate app.

Check us out and you will see the difference. Call us at +1.408.621.8481 or email us at team@sdi.la