How mobile banking app developers address privacy, security and compliance

The advent of mobile technology in the banking world has certainly disturbed it deeply. A traditional centralized system that operated in highly controlled spaces began to migrate to serving customers through mobile devices. This was undoubtedly a revolution that entailed the redefinition of numerous workflows, standards and practices.

It also brought a huge challenge – how to safeguard the privacy and security of customers when they carry banks in their pockets? Today's mobile banking apps are ubiquitous, so the challenge is more relevant than ever. Mobile banking app developers need to understand the needs of the banking system and its users and come up with ways to meet them while preserving highly confidential data protected across operations, transactions and various vulnerable points.

Naturally, the system has been strengthened with laws and regulations that seek to guide how to achieve this difficult task. Therefore, mobile application engineers need to have an in-depth understanding of the regulatory framework when creating applications. It's not an easy task, but today, mobile developers have a deeper understanding of what it takes to create a mobile banking app with privacy and security compliance in mind. That's how it looks.

Understanding the Basics of Mobile Banking

One of the first things a software engineering team needs to do on a mobile banking app project is understand the basics. In addition to the actual development of the app, there are many things to consider, especially in the security and privacy aspects of the project, which are the highest priorities in any mobile banking app.

Given the highly dynamic nature of the mobile environment, the number of threats and vulnerabilities is increasing, making it even more challenging to maintain protection at the highest level. Thus, mobile developers have better categorized potential risks and vulnerabilities to address them during the application development lifecycle. There is an “attack surface” that is divided into these categories depending on the target area of ​​the attack.

Following this line of thinking, developers identified three main parts of the attack surface:

• Devices: Components of mobile devices, such as the browser, the device itself, applications or the operating system, all have multiple vulnerabilities that can be gateways to breaches. Thus, malicious actors attack this with phishing attempts, brute force attacks, SMishing, and dynamic runtime injection, among many others.

• Networks: Mobile devices rely primarily on wireless connections to perform their tasks, so it's natural that the networks they use to do this are targets for attacks. While mobile devices use more than just Wi-Fi to connect, it's these connections that are most vulnerable to encryption issues, man-in-the-middle attacks, and Facebook SSL certificates, among others.

• Data centers: These connections connect mobile devices to servers that handle a lot of information and have their vulnerabilities. Therefore, malicious attacks target these endpoints (including web servers and databases) using weak input validations, server misconfigurations, data dumping, and SQL injection attacks.

This panorama paints the entire picture of mobile security. It is true that developers working on a mobile banking app cannot handle them all. They need to worry about the most common threats and vulnerabilities related to this type of application. On the one hand, common vulnerabilities involve mobile banking systems, the way they are used and the devices they use, including:

• Jailbroken and rooted devices. Jailbreak and root mean removing certain security limits to access protected parts of the operating system. While this gives the user more control over the system, it also exposes them to attacks that can more easily take control of the system.

• Data storage on the phone. Storing sensitive banking information on your phone is a big red flag, as any app with sufficient permissions can access and exploit it to commit banking fraud.

• I use non-SSL. On the one hand, using SSL-free links gives attackers the opportunity to intercept traffic and inject a fake login prompt. Conversely, sending specific information (such as activation codes) without a security certificate could provide the same attacker with the data needed to hijack a session.

• Outdated connections. Open Wi-Fi networks are highly vulnerable to attacks.

These four significant vulnerabilities show that mobile app developers need to consider more than just gaps in systems – they also need to understand weaknesses in devices and their users, both of which provide additional vulnerabilities that exceed those found in an app. Bank officer .

Malicious actors exploit these vulnerabilities in different ways, but some attacks are more common than others. Mobile engineers working on banking apps often develop their security systems, paying special attention to the following:

• Man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attacks: When the banking application communicates with the bank, vital information comes and goes. Hackers try to intercept it to later use it to access the user's account.

• Infrastructure breaches: mainly aimed at servers, these are attacks that seek to collect credentials (such as usernames, passwords and other personal information).

• Pirated applications: hackers reverse engineer a legitimate application to later distribute its infected version, thus gaining access to the information of people who inadvertently install the pirated version.

• Mobile malware: As with desktop systems, there is a lot of mobile malware targeting mobile devices. Banking apps are some of its main targets.

• Click hijacking: A technique that attempts to trick users into clicking a button or element to perform a seemingly innocuous action but triggers a malicious response (such as downloading malware or collecting sensitive information)

Naturally, attacks not only target mobile applications themselves, but also system problems and insecure behavior of mobile users. This means that the mobile development team's security efforts must be closely aligned with broader security efforts that bring additional protection to the rest of the system.

How Mobile Development Teams Ensure Banking App Security

All of the above should inform a mobile development team in the early stages of their SDLC. Armed with this information, the team can better identify risks associated with mobile banking apps and create a more robust app. Developers can do this in a number of ways, especially by following standard security practices for application development. However, there are other specific practices they can follow, including:

• The development team's security policies should depend on user compliance.
• There are many practices that can help reduce the risks associated with developing a mobile banking application, including risk mitigation, integrity checking, repackaging detection, regulatory compliance obligations, data encryption, and identifying vulnerabilities in source code.
• A mobile banking application must always include multi-factor authentication, whether via SMS or (preferably) biometric data.
• Furthermore, it must have reliable password protection that does not allow the user to save passwords.
• Automatic logoff after a fixed period of inactivity is mandatory. The time may vary, but should never exceed 1 minute.
• The application must use the latest in digital signatures and secure transfer protocols.
• Developers should always include SSL certificate checks and end-to-end encryption.
• Testing and quality control must be extensive and present throughout the SDLC.

In addition to all this, the development team must pay special attention to data management and handling regulations. There may be multiple regulations applicable to a specific app depending on the region, country, or even state in which it will be used. A good development team will keep compliance at the top of the priority list. Being aligned with these regulations not only avoids fines – it also follows proven security principles that can reduce the risks associated with mobile development for banks.

All this shows that developing a mobile banking app is not an easy task. In fact, it's something that not all mobile development teams can do. It takes a team of well-versed and knowledgeable engineers with enough industry experience and knowledge to solve this multifaceted problem.

Therefore, any company looking to create its banking app should carefully analyze the market and choose an experienced mobile development company that keeps security, privacy and compliance as its main focus. Those who consider all the aspects described above are the best alternatives, as everything is essential to approach the development of mobile banking. Considering all this information is the only way to develop a secure application that protects consumers and banks.