Android App Security Tips — How To Secure Android Apps in 2020

In recent times, mobile devices enable everyone to do nearly everything online from anywhere, at any time. According to research, there would be an addition of 394 million smartphone users who will come online in Asia by 2023. The Android operating system has a lot of in-built security features such as protection against buffer, integer overflow attacks, and application sandboxing. These in-built security features help smaller & simpler Android apps perform networking operations that can often be considered secure by default.

However, in the case of developing larger and complex Android apps, it is an android app developer's responsibility to make it secure and protect the privacy of your users. A general survey states that about 73% of popular free apps on Android had been hacked. Especially when these enterprise or banking applications. Therefore, in this article, we will have a look at different ways to secure Android apps that big Android app development companies follow.

Top 5 Ways To Secure Android Applications

1. Secure the Network Connections on the Backend

• The servers that an app’s APIs are accessing must have security measures to prevent unauthorized access and protect data.
• APIs must be verified to prevent eavesdropping on sensitive information that passes to the app’s database and server.
• Android app developers must consult a network security specialist to conduct vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to ensure that the correct data is protected in the right ways.
• To spread resources out across servers, so they’re not all in one place, Federation, the next-level security measure should be applied.

2. Use Internal For Storing Sensitive Data

• Every Android app comes up with an internal storage directory that is associated with a path that is based on the package name of the app. The files inside the directory are secure as they use the MODE_PRIVATE file creation mode by default.
• This stops other apps on the device from accessing the files of your app. Therefore, the internal storage directory is the best place to store all the sensitive data of your app.

3. App’s Code Security

• Mobile software security needs to be a priority.
• Native apps are different from web applications, where software and data exist securely on a server, and the client-side is just an interface. However, with native apps, that code resides on the device once it’s downloaded. But this makes it more accessible to those with malicious intent.
• When it comes to the app’s source code, there are many vulnerabilities, but that is not where businesses focus their security spending.
• Data security and network components are essential parts when the overall security picture is concerned.

4. Use HTTPS

• The communications between an app and the servers must be over an HTTPS connection.
• The majority of the Android device users connect to several open Wi-Fi hotspots in public areas. Few of those hotspots could be malicious, which can easily alter the contents of HTTP traffic.
• Therefore, by using HTTPS, with the server that is configured with a certificate issued by a trusted certificate authority can be sure that your network traffic is secure against attacks.

5. Avoid Asking For Personal Data

• These days, user privacy is given a lot of importance. Unless, a mobile app developers have a good reason and secure infrastructure to collect, store, and transmit the user’s data, they must avoid directly asking for it.
• When it comes to user authentication and user profile on the Android platform is through the Google Identity Platform.
• Google Identity Platform enables the android app users to sign in to the app using their Google account quickly. By using this method, the developer can easily look up at various details about the user, such as the user’s name, contacts, email address, profile photo, and more. Besides this, one can even use free services like Firebase that can manage user authentication for the app makers & handlers.

Conclusion

With the increase in the demand for mobile devices, the applications must be secured. If you want to develop a complex app, follow the above tips to ensure your app and provide a protected Android app. Businesses can contact Android app developers of OpenXcell, Android app development company to get a secured app developed.