Beware: iOS apps developed by Non-professional may prove riskier

Mobile and their app have completely changed our life. There is a huge difference what we are today and what we were 10 years ago, in terms of technology. Terms such as globalisation, digitalization have changed today’s scenario, standard of living. Similarly cyber security threats, thefts, data leakage, use of various antiviruses are increasingly becoming the part of our world. These mobile apps provide assistance in all sort of our day to day activities ranging from apps for health fitness, reminders for events or meetings, managing banking activities, shopping, payment of bills, route assistance, entertainment and many more. While downloading any app, a user is open to many threats. As apps take various access permissions to our contacts, gallery, messages, track locations, which are not even required by related app. With all these information an adversary could take opportunity to attack any one.

Experienced iOS developer is a need for hassle free app

It is absolutely correct that iOS apps are more secure than android apps. But an app developed by non- professional! We must have a thought over it. What, if developer creates a minor mistake which may lead to vulnerabilities? To avoid such circumstances, a highly skilled iPhone development professional is required. An experienced developer who is already exposed to many clients, with their different requirement is aware of minute shortcomings. They are aware of the problems that happen to occur in long run. So an app developed by experienced iOS developer requires less maintenance, incurs less cost and time, and runs smoothly in long run.

Process that an iOS developer goes through:

• Gathering and analysis of requirement
• Designing and development of app
• Parallel testing
• Deployment of application
• Maintenance

Benefits of getting app developed by iOS supporting team

Customer satisfaction: emphasis on quality delivery, value their customer's requirements. Expert in their field: they are technically very strong, updated with latest technologies. They deliver an error free app to their customers. Scalability: An experienced iOS App developer understands the importance of growth and expansion. So they are always equipped with required resources. Timely delivery of assignment: An experienced iOS App developer always meet their deadlines. Provide cost Effective Solutions: A developer optimises the process of their customer and helps in boosting, maximizing their profits. Parallel testing: Parallel testing is always carried on to reduce future changes Reachability through mobile apps: In this fast-changing world of technology and innovation, mobile application has become a critical point of contact between the customer and the service provider like Uber, Swiggy, Zomato etc. Nowadays every business can penetrate the market using this solid weapon which reaches 94% population of device owners across the world. Mobile apps are easily visible to customers at all times and that is why building a brand and improving customer engagement has become lot easier than ever.

Experts opinion: Malware does not exist for iOS:

Apple iPhone and iPad users claim that malware word does not exist for iOS user. Indeed, there is not a single antivirus solution in their app store. Experts say using an iOS platform is much secure as compared to the android platform. But according to a new report by mobile app security vendors named as Checkmarx and AppSec Labs, your opinion may change. Talking about iOS vulnerabilities, 40 percent were critical or high severity, compared to 36 percent of the Android vulnerabilities. So if we believe this study, we can say that applications built on iOS platform have comparatively more vulnerabilities than those for Androids, so this is a probable and critical loophole for attackers to steal user’s confidential data in future. We can say that nothing in this world is absolute secure. We can take another instance of Pegasus malware attack on iOS devices which caused leakage of user’s data in the year 2016. This instance of malware attack busted the myth about the safety of iOS apps.

Pegasus Malware: A Sophisticated attack:

What is Pegasus? How does it work? Pegasus is spyware that secretly gets installed on iOS version devices, on clicking malicious links. It is a sort of adversary that is capable of hacking any iPhone and iPad. It collects all data of the target and monitors all the activities of the victim. It was the havoc to cyber security world.

Interesting facts of Pegasus:

• Pegasus is a modular program, which scans victim's device. These programs can read target's messages, listen to its calls, captures pressed keys, screenshots, browses history, contacts, tracks locations and many more. Directly full surveillance of targets, noting each activity of a victim.
• It is limited not only to iOS version but also to android versions.
• Pegasus can also listen to calls and texts before they are encrypted (on sender's side) and after decrypted (on receiver's side).
• It purposely tries to hide itself. It can also destroy itself if it is not able to connect itself to its command-and-control server within 60 days.
• If it detects that it was installed on the wrong device then it destroy itself, as their targets were specific.

Not a cup of tea for non-professional: Nowadays there are many service providers who are giving a platform for building iOS applications with ease. But this way of building an app involves a high potential threat as it does not involve a certified tester who can check over the risks and vulnerabilities present in newly designed applications. Any nonprofessional who has instincts of building a great design can build the app easily, but that does not mean the app is secure. Removing unnecessary information from server responses is important and can be done by a professional iOS developer only. Unnecessary information gives an attacker extra information for jail breaking the application. Proper authorization and authentication is very important as inadequate authorization checks leads to failure of accessing data in a manner consistent with the security policy. Attackers have expertise in data forensic and they can easily gather information by accessing application caches from a lost or stolen device. Only a professional developer can create a model for different operations where data is sent over the application servers. Vulnerability management is a critical aspect and any nonprofessional does not have the level of expertise to handle this. Insufficient transport layer protection is one of the spaces where a security can be compromised and therefore a secured socket layer is necessary and should be deployed and the data should be encrypted. There are number of possible ways of gathering critical information which are phishing, vishing and exploiting the transport layer in the information passing cycle. Any malicious or threatful link can cause an irreparable damage to user sensitive data.

Conclusion:

Is building an app for any business sufficient? No, a whole lot of risk is involved during usage of applications. User’s confidential data is being used by android and iOS apps and exposure of data in the wrong hands can lead to very serious consequences. Most multinational companies have their own security experts for studying the vulnerabilities present in their mobile application servers. The concept of security operations centre is becoming popular day by day as it manages the threat present in the server on day to day basis. In short there are huge numbers of prechecks and technicalities which needs to be considered while developing an iOS application and that is why it should be done by a professional developer. If ignored it may impose a great security threat to customers and businesses as well.