Generally, when it comes to computer security, people often misunderstand terms of cybersecurity and information security for the same meaning. But do both of these terms mean the same though? Well, let’s proceed further to find out!
What is Cybersecurity?
While cybersecurity and information security may seem synonymous to users, both terms are theoretically different in the concept of security. Cybersecurity is the amalgamation of processes, technologies, and practices, chiefly designed to protect data, systems, networks, and programs from unauthorized access and cyber-attacks.
Organizations transmit sensitive and confidential data across networks and to other devices for business purposes on a daily basis. This is where cybersecurity plays the role of securing information and systems used for process or storage from various types of attacks in cybersecurity.
As ever-evolving cyber-attacks are rapidly on the rise, implementing cybersecurity solutions helps in safeguarding the data related to confidential and financial records of the company. Employee security awareness, training tools, incident response tools, email authentication protocols, brand monitoring tools, etc. are some types of cybersecurity solutions.
What is Information Security?
Cybersecurity explained above states the focus on the security of process and technology. However, information security is entirely a different concept. Information security plays a role in ensuring that both digital and physical data is being protected from unauthorized access, exploitation, recording, disclosure or modification.
The abbreviated term of information security is “infosec” and is also referred to as “data security”. It aims to keep data secure regardless of digital or physical form. Moreover, information security is a set of practices to keep data secure during scenarios where it is being stored or transmitted from one device or place to another.
While information security remains to be a primary focus in protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, maintaining organizational productivity is equally an important concern. This is why information security offers guidance, security policies, industry standards in passwords, antivirus software and information security awareness to provide best practices.
So, if cybersecurity and information security work on the same goal of safeguarding an organization’s data, then what differentiates both terms? Let’s find out with the difference stated below!
Cybersecurity Vs. Information Security: 5 Key Differences
Before continuing to learn what differs both terms, it is important to understand that cybersecurity is basically a subset of information security. You can consider information security as an umbrella with cybersecurity coming underneath it along with other security standards.
Now let’s read further to figure out the differences between these two terms:
Cybersecurity
Information Security
Security of data and information in digital or electronic form.
Protection of data from cyber frauds, cybercrimes, cyber-attacks, and law enforcement.
This focuses on securing the cyber resilience of an organization including personal data present on the digital and electronic platform.
The advanced step to combat persistent cyber threats that are imminent.
Deals with cyber threats like phishing, ransomware, risk of removable media, cyber scams, vishing, and smishing.
Security of information assets, existing in both physical and digital form.
Protection of information from unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, misuse or destruction.
This focuses on securing information assets of an organization like integrity, confidentiality, and availability.
The foremost step in the foundation of data security.
This deals with all sorts of security threats to ensure that proper security protocols are set in place.
From the above-given table, now we can easily differentiate between both the terms. While information security mainly concerns protecting data of organization from any sort of unauthorized access, cybersecurity ensures that an organization’s electronic data is secure from cyber threat actors. Cybersecurity is a broad practice of ensuring that servers, networks, and email channels remain protected and accessible to only authorized users that fall under the realm of information security.
Although, the information is not the only area of concern for cyber threat attackers. Some hackers are keener about uncovering the user’s login credentials and gaining unauthorized access to closed networks. Their purpose to do so is to manipulate the data and website or hamper the essential functions.
To prevent hackers from attempting such malicious activities, patching up existing vulnerabilities in networks and devices is a must. Doing so leaves no room for hackers or cyber threat actors to make any possible interaction between the computer device and network or server.
This is why we have certain types of cybersecurity solutions that hold a wide scope right now. Moreover, the experts in this field will have high demand over the next decade too due to the introduction of new technology trends.
The Parallel-ground Between Cybersecurity & Information Security
After all these differences, you might wonder if there is any parallel-ground between cybersecurity and information security or not. Well, the answer is yes! Both cybersecurity and information security are the foundation to information risk management.
While cybersecurity professionals are mainly concerned with safeguarding electronic data from cyber risks and data breaches, they still perform physical security practices. Just like information security professionals keep a cabinet full of confidential information locked, cybersecurity experts require physical security measures to keep adequate data protected. It is impossible to physically lock a computer device, but having security protocols in place, one can easily prevent unauthorized access.
Both cybersecurity and information security are crucial aspects of technology in this evolving 21st century. Organizations looking forward to data security must understand the importance of these two aspects of technology. Every security administration of an organization must stay one step ahead of the ever-evolving security threats.
They are needed to provide and implement the best security awareness training practices and as well as analytical tools to monitor phishing and fraud activities taking place on the online platform. With constantly developing technology and the IT world, security professionals must stay updated to tackle down the evolving security risks and prevent future cyber threats.
CIOs and CISOs with good foresight can have a positive impact on the overall cyber security outlook of an organization. Securing the organization against cyber threats is a process and every process needs a strong leader to spearhead it. A strong leader has ideas and methods to implement those ideas.
Qualities in a Good Information Security Officer
Being in charge of the cyber security of an organization, CIOs and CISOs have a great amount of responsibility on their shoulders. Even a careless mistake can result in huge losses of time and money. So, what makes a good information security officer?
Innovation
CIOs and CISOs should have the ability to adapt to the growing pace of technology as well as the threats and opportunities arising from it. They should always be on the lookout for innovative ways to make cyber security easy, hassle-free and effective.
Self-awareness
The ability to be thoroughly aware of your strengths and weaknesses is a major quality in every good leader. It applies to information security officers too. CIOs and CISOs should be well aware of what they lack and how to fill that void.
Hunger for learning “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – John F. Kennedy
A good leader never stops learning. The evolution of skills is a prerequisite for finding creative solutions to tricky problems.
Decisiveness As the leader of a very sensitive department of the organization, CIOs or CISOs should be quick in making decisions. Cyber threats can proceed as a sequence of mixed events very quickly and it is imperative for information security officers to be quick on their feet when it comes to handling such situations.
Insights That Would Interest CIOs and CISOs in 2021
It is important for information security officers to figure out what needs to be done and how to prioritize each task in order to protect their organization against cyber threats. Some of the insights mentioned below would interest information security officers –
Information Security has Taken the Front Seat In Oct 2020, 451 Research’s Coronavirus Flash Survey revealed that information security has become a major technology objective for 44.7% of surveyed organizations due to the influence of Covid-19.
Information Security Officers are Closer to Business than Ever Gartner’s 2021 CIO Agenda revealed the fact that as a result of Covid-19, CIOs are now working very closely with business heads of their respective organizations. The ever-increasing role of information security officers in improving the business potential of the organization has made their position all the more important.
Nothing Can Replace Human Awareness An article published by CISO Mag in September 2020 revealed that 88% of data breach incidents are caused by employees’ mistakes. If an information security officer could prevent this from happening, imagine the overall business improvement that this will result in.It is possible for information security officers to bring about a positive change in the level of cyber security awareness in their organizations. Using security awareness tools can be a good starting point.A rational cost-benefit analysis would tell you that employee awareness will always be an important part of an organization’s cyber security policy. The benefits accruing to the organization from a more aware workforce can be HUGE!!
4.Insider Threat is a Reality Covid-19 has tested our limits of patience and tolerance. However, some people handle this stress well, others don’t. It is important to understand that the risk of insider threats arising from malicious intent and abuse is now greater than ever. This is majorly due to job security concerns that have grown during this pandemic phase.
Remote Work Culture is Here to Stay It is a well-known fact that many companies have now opted for remote working – covid or no covid. They believe that remote working can reduce many of their management costs. However, remote working can adversely affect the organization’s threat posture. This is one big reason for the elevated level of responsibility on an organization’s information security officers. Employee education and the use of a strong IAM (Identity Access Management) system can go a long way when it comes to the resolution of this problem.
Cyber security has become a board-level talk for many organizations now. Avoiding the loss of business due to cyber attacks is now a business strategy. Therefore, it is upon information security officers to improve the business potential of their organizations by choosing methods that help in defending against cyber risks.
For an even better understanding of how information security officers go about their business to defend their organization against cyber threats, you can view the following webinar on the topic – How to Guard Your Organization Against Phishing in a Remote Working World?
Cyber Threat Report of 2019: 69% of Firms Face Serious Cyber Attacks in India!
Do you know that India is in has been ranked the second position amongst the countries affected by cyber attacks between 2016-2018? According to a source, there was a 22% rise in cyber attack in India on IoT deployments. India has faced the most number of attacks in the IoT department this year. In fact, India has been consecutively facing cyber attacks, the second time in a row!
In a recent study, it was revealed that out of 15 Indian cities, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bengaluru have faced the maximum number of cyber attacks. In the Annual Cyber Security Report by CISCO, 53% of cyber attacks caused more than $500K of financial loss to organizations in 2018.
India has faced a rise of 7.9% in data breaches since 2017. Also, the average cost per data breach record is mounting to INR 4,552 ($64). Cyber attacks in India have risen up to such an extent that our country ranks fourth out of the top 10 targeted countries in the world. In a report by India Today, Chennai experienced the highest percentile of cyber attacks with a stat of 48% in the first quarter of 2019.
No survey or warning has brought any change in the cyber security policies of companies across the nation. In spite of witnessing several cyber attacks in India, people are still not aware of lucrative cyber security solutions to prevent their organization from any other attack. Here are some recent series of cyber attacks that massively brought loss to renowned companies in India.
The 2019’s Biggest Cyber Attacks in India
Cyber criminals have adapted advanced cyber attack techniques for their targeted end-users. Various business sectors and geographical locations have faced recent cyber attacks in India.
Cosmos Bank Cyber Attack in Pune
A recent cyber attack in India in 2018 was deployed on Cosmos Bank in Pune. This daring attack shook the whole banking sector of India when hackers siphoned off Rs. 94.42 crores from Cosmos Cooperative Bank Ltd. in Pune.
Hackers hacked into the bank’s ATM server and took details of many visas and rupee debit cardholders. Money was wiped off while hacker gangs from around 28 countries immediately withdrew the amount as soon as they were informed.
ATM System Hacked
Around mid-2018, Canara bank ATM servers were targeted in a cyber attack. Almost 20 lakh rupees were wiped off from various bank accounts. A count of 50 victims was estimated and according to the sources, cyber attackers held ATM details of more than 300 users. Hackers used skimming devices to steal information from debit cardholders. Transactions made from stolen details amounted from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 40,000.
UIDAI Aadhaar Software Hacked
2018 started with a massive data breach of personal records of 1.1 Billion Indian Aadhaar cardholders. UIDAI revealed that around 210 Indian Government websites had leaked Aadhaar details of people online.
Data leaked included Aadhaar, PAN and mobile numbers, bank account numbers, IFSC codes and mostly every personal information of all individual cardholders. If it wasn’t enough shocking, anonymous sellers were selling Aadhaar information of any person for Rs. 500 over Whatsapp. Also, one could get any person’s Aadhaar car printout by paying an extra amount of Rs.300.
Hack Attack on Indian Healthcare Websites
Indian-based healthcare websites became a victim of cyber attack recently in 2019. As stated by US-based cyber security firms, hackers broke in and invaded a leading India-based healthcare website. The hacker stole 68 lakh records of patients as well as doctors.
SIM Swap Scam
Two hackers from Navi Mumbai were arrested for transferring 4 crore rupees from numerous bank accounts in August 2018. They illegally transferred money from the bank accounts of many individuals. By fraudulently gaining SIM card information, both attackers blocked individuals’ SIM cards and with the help of fake document posts, they carried out transactions via online banking. They also tried to hack accounts of various targeted companies.
Aforesaid stats and events of the latest cyber attacks in India are the wake-up call for all those individuals and companies who are still vulnerable to cyber threats. It is very essential for organizations to implement cyber security measures and follow the below-mentioned security guidelines.
Cyber Security Measures for Organizations to Prevent Cyber Attacks
Educate employees on the emerging cyber attacks with security awareness training.
Keep all software and systems updated from time to time with the latest security patches.
Implement email authentication protocols such as DMARC, DKIM and SPF to secure your email domain from email-based cyber attacks.
Get regular Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing to patch and remove the existing vulnerabilities in the network and web application.
Limit employee access to sensitive data or confidential information and limit their authority to install the software.
Use highly strong passwords for accounts and make sure to update them at long intervals.
Avoid the practice of openly password sharing at work.
Whether exchanging emails across networks or dumping them in your spam folder, a huge amount of data is sent, received and stored. You may not realize but there are high chances that an unsecured email might have landed in your inbox which can act as a source of data exploitation. Now you wouldn’t want that, would you? That’s why email security is very essential for our daily routine in order to keep a check if any malicious email is accessing our inbox or not. The cybersecurity professionals working in every industry vertical must stay updated with the prevailing attacks possible through emails.
According to ComputerWeekly.com, 82% of organizations claimed to have faced email-based cybersecurity threats in 2018. Whereas, ransomware seems to be the biggest cyber threat in the coming year. The reason being, ransomware attacks that encrypt critical business files and demand for ransom in return are often sent to individuals working in organizations by emails only!
These eye-opening facts call for proper email protection solutions that are needed to be implemented in every organization as a defensive system against invading cyber threats. As far as cybersecurity is concerned, the best solution is using email security tools that incorporate a wide range of security techniques that email accounts and services have. Proceed further for the top 5 email security practices that can benefit your organization from email-based cyber risks.
The 4 Types of Email Security Practices
Never click the “unsubscribe” link in spam emails:
At times, certain emails manage to surpass the spam filter and land in your inbox. For instance, you come across one such certain email and on opening it, you discover that it looks like a phishing email. What would be your first instinct? In any normal situation, users tend to unsubscribe suspicious-looking emails but that is not actually safe!
Hackers are good manipulators and they use such links to fool people into clicking attachment which redirects the targeted users to a phishing site. Apart from that, these links also provide hackers with a back door for access into your system.
Avoid Public WiFi:
Never access emails from a public WiFi because they are less secure and hackers choose public WiFi to steal information by passing through a weak network. Cybercriminals require nothing but a laptop and basic software to hack into public WiFi networks and monitor all the traffic. Accessing emails via unsecured public networks can lead to misuse of user’s credentials and a huge loss of sensitive data. This could also result in further intended targeted cyberattacks that are down the line.
Email Encryption:
Disguising and encrypting email content potentially protects the sensitive data that is sent and received, from being read by anyone except the intended recipient. With email encryption, you can secure your emails over untrusted networks from eavesdroppers or any third person trying to invade in between the email exchange. This security strategy reduces the chance of disclosure of information as well as alter of message content.
Employee Education:
Limit the chances of cyber risks in your organization by providing employees with cybersecurity awareness training tools. Along with the implementation of policies and email security tools to prevent cyber threat postures, it is essential to encourage employees to become proactive in combating attack vectors like ransomware, phishing emails, and cyber scams. Security awareness tools is an AI/ML-based security attack simulation tool that assesses the real-time threat posture of an organization. With the unlimited number of attack campaigns and automated training campaigns, this product builds cyber awareness among the employees in an organization and creates a resilient working environment.
Implementing and working on the above-mentioned email protection solutions will not only keep your data safe but will also be beneficial in the long term. In order to protect your business, it is important to make sure that all your employees are empowered to make email based decisions and are protected from data thefts.
Hackers are everywhere nowadays and they won’t stop holding back from discovering vulnerabilities and exploiting your data. Secure your organization now with a robust email security tool in order to reduce the chances of becoming a victim of the prevailing cyber threats.
Every year, the industry of cybersecurity in India faces new challenges and responsibilities to safeguard the growing online data and the digital economy. Did you know the digital economy currently comprises 14-15% of the total economy of India? While with more than 120 recognized ‘data centers’ and clouds in India, the digital economy is targeted to reach 20% by the year 2024!
Moreover, the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and data analytics, has again become a huge challenge for the cyberspace as apart from becoming a more complex domain, it is giving rise to technical issues and the anticipated cyber risks.
However, with the development and introduction of advanced technologies in the market, India is yet to face and tackle new problems in the domain of cybersecurity. This disruptive innovation has brought India to crossroads with a complex network of modern enigmas and unprecedented harm.
Below mentioned are some of the major cybersecurity challenges that our nation is facing:
Email-based and internet-facing applications still remain to be among the top threat vectors.
With people depending more and more on the cloud infrastructure and solutions, human error continues to be the primary source of misconfigurations and vulnerabilities.
In the research analysis of 50,000 emails, a significant increase in the conversation hijacking attacks by 400% between July and November 2019 was experienced. Therefore, this still continues to be a major cyberrisk.
Growing online transactions seems to have generated considerable incentives for cybercriminals.
Phishing and unethical cyber practices have grown a hundredfold in the past few years, making it easier for even non-technical perform hacking.
Cloud, 5G and IoT devices have evolved as among the biggest cybersecurity threats of 2020.
The New Cybersecurity Approach for 2020
Back in late 2019, India was at the target of two cyberattacks in the same month. Moreover, the malware attacks at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant were believed to have happened due to phishing attempts on employees. After experiencing these devastating cyber risks, India is all set to fill the security gaps with the new Cybersecurity Strategy 2020!
With the vision of creating a “cyber-secure nation” for businesses as well as individuals, the Indian government is ready to release the cybersecurity strategy policy in January 2020 with an aim to achieve the target of $5 trillion economy.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, the IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney has stated that our country holds an estimated amount of USD 1.9 billion in cybersecurity service enterprises and USD 450 million of cybersecurity products from India. Along with the presence of multinational and Indian entities, engaging in R&D cybersecurity, all in total currently amounts to USD 5 billion worth cybersecurity ecosystem in India. (source: The Economics Time)
The cybersecurity companies in India have come up with innovative and leading technology-based products and services to reduce the prevailing cyber threat postures in organizations across the nation. As a contribution to creating a “cyber-secure nation”, these companies are effortlessly providing the best defensive tools and VAPT services for all the industry vectors.
Our country is fully inclined towards the path of sustainable development but to achieve that, we have to combat various hurdles such as patching up of the existing vulnerabilities in the cyber world. And this can only happen with the proper formation of critical IT infrastructure and consistent partnership between the public and private sectors working as key aspects for a cybersecurity framework.
It is vital to be visionary and recognize the upcoming challenges from the future in order to be fully prepared and preventing our organizations from becoming another cyberattack’s victims. We don’t have to match the worldwide standards in security when we are capable enough of setting up the highest standards in the world!
Recent headlines have been full of news about major healthcare mergers and acquisitions, often involving newcomers to the industry, but also creating a convergence of traditional payer, provider and pharmaceutical benefit management companies.
Here are some of the latest examples in the changing healthcare scene:
CVS Health, a large pharmaceutical benefit manager, is purchasing Aetna, a large insurer, while Cigna, another large insurer, is acquiring Express Scripts, another pharmaceutical benefit manager.
Meanwhile, tech giants Amazon and Apple took some giant steps into the healthcare fray. Amazon entered into a joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway and J.P. Morgan Chase in an effort by all three to control employer costs, and Amazon also purchased PillPack, an online pharmacy company, and expects to expand services after obtaining state licenses. Apple showed its commitment to shake up the healthcare status quo by expanding its personal health record system, partnerships with hospitals and A.C. Wellness centers – all with a goal of gaining greater influence on healthcare consumption.
The convergence moves the industry away from the traditional separation of payers (health insurance companies and self-insured employers) and providers. Typically, payers are defined as the organizations that conduct actuarial analysis and manage financial risk by collecting premiums and managing payments for services delivered. Providers, meanwhile have typically been defined as healthcare practitioners and organizations that deliver and bill for services, including inpatient, outpatient, elective and emergent.
Those narrow definitions have been shaken up in the post-Affordable Care Act (ACA) world. In the past, the focus was on fee-for-service and capitated contracts under which HMOs or managed care organizations paid a fixed amount for its members to a provider. But the ACA moved the emphasis to value-based care, pushing more financial risk onto providers and away from payers. That means insurers and providers also need to consider how they manage pre-existing conditions and use risk scoring to determine the likely needs of their patients, as their approach can make the difference between profitable success and unprofitable failure.
In this new and complex environment, mergers and acquisitions are seen as a way for both providers and payers to build up their capabilities and respond to the need to enhance patient care, improve population health and reduce costs.
For traditional healthcare incumbents, we believe this also means using a “secret” weapon non-traditional players already leverage: data analytics.
Better data and analytics life cycle management can yield the insights payers and providers need to balance their priorities and deliver value-based care.
How to balance risk and patient outcomes
But first, what do all of these changes entail, and how do they take providers and payers beyond their narrower definitions?
In the post-ACA world, providers are looking to take more financial risk as their actuarial capabilities improve. This would allow them to negotiate more effectively with payers to achieve care outcomes objectives while balancing reimbursement and risk.
Payers, meanwhile, are acquiring doctors’ offices and other providers, or combining with retail clinics and other points-of-care to combine care delivery with financial risk management. To accomplish these goals, payers need to take a more active role in managing the healthcare professionals that they employ as well as the patients who visit those practitioners. Having access to the care delivery setting also allows for greater accuracy.
Managing these activities – by both the provider and the payer – needs to go beyond just financial management. It needs to include operational excellence, using robust data analytics to communicate with people and organizations delivering care. It also requires having performance-level agreements and bidirectional communication in place to measure and monitor reasonable objectives set by both payer and provider. Indeed, collaboration and communication will be crucial to overcome tensions that are building as providers try to deliver on value-based contracts. Finding a way to integrate insights from the back-end will help to ensure both the payer and provider perspectives are understood.
Use data to your advantage
A balance between the needs of the provider and the payer – while prioritizing the needs of the patient – will require change management and deeper insights on what works, what doesn’t and how outcomes for all stakeholders can be adjusted and improved. Those insights must be based on hard data, which will require more robust data, analytics and IT infrastructure. Organizations will need to deploy data and analytics life cycle management – including input, ingestion, management, storage and data utility. Integrated workflows make it easy to collect better, well-rounded encounter data, improving how providers work and increasing provider and patient satisfaction.
That data needs to encompass all parts of the healthcare continuum, meaning patient experience as well as provider and payer data. For this to happen, payers and providers must ensure better consumer engagement by spurring patients to take charge of their own care and using the data provided by patients to improve insights. Being able to see the end-to-end experience of the patient can affect the pieces accordingly.
Brave new healthcare environment
This brings us full circle to the changing industry dynamics and the entry of non-traditional players into the healthcare arena, since the big tech players such as Amazon, Apple and Alphabet know how to leverage data analytics to gain customer insights. As healthcare incumbents build and acquire assets, they will need to match these capabilities and build on their own strengths to ensure they aren’t left behind in this brave new healthcare environment.
Building a revolutionary mobile application is only the first step in mobile app development. Once you’ve built an app, there are thousands of mandatory processes that follow app development. One of those many crucial steps in mobile app security.
In this article, we will explore what are the essential mobile app security practices that you ought to implement after the development is finalized.
Over the last decade, we all have witnessed how the mobile app development industry has grown but so have cybercrimes. And these crimes have led us to a stage where it is not possible to submit an app to Play Store or App Store without taking certain measures to secure it.
However, getting towards what the security measures entail, we first need to understand why there is a need for taking these actions and what are the potential app security issues that plague the mobile app development industry. For a real-life estimate, let us look at the facts:
There is still more to mobile app security than safeguarding them against malware and threats. Let us first identify some of the OWASP mobile app security threats to understand the security measures better.
Why do we need Mobile App Security: Potential Threats & Their Solutions
The threats that present themselves in the app development world although are malicious, can be solved with simple steps to securing a mobile application. Let us take a look at what are the major mobile app security issues.
1. Faulty server controls:
The communications that take place between the app and user outside the mobile phone device happen via servers. And such servers are primary targets of hackers throughout the world. The main reason behind the vulnerability of a server is because sometimes developers overlook the necessary server-side security into account. This may happen due to a lack of knowledge about security considerations for mobile applications, small budgets for security purposes, or the vulnerabilities caused due to cross-platform development.
Solution:
The most crucial step in safeguarding your servers is to scan your apps with the help of automated scanners. These scanners can, otherwise, be used by hackers to dig out vulnerabilities in your apps and exploit them. Automated scanners will surface the common issues and bugs which are easy to resolve.
2. The absence of Binary protection:
This is also one of the prime OWASP app security issues to address because if there is a lack of Binary protection for a mobile app, any hacker or an adversary can easily reverse engineer the app code to introduce malware. They can also redistribute a pirated application of the same and inject it with a threat also. All of this can lead to critical issues such as data theft and damage to brand image and resultantly revenue loss.
Solution:
To safeguard Binary files, it is important to deploy binary hardening procedures. As a part of this procedure, binary files are analyzed and accordingly modified to protect them against common mobile app security threats. This procedure fixes the legacy code without involving the source code at all. It is crucial to ensure security coding for the detection of jailbreaks, checksum controls, debugger detection control, and certificate pinning while working on mobile app security processes.
3. Data Storage Insecurity:
Another big loophole that is common in Mobile app security is the absence of a safe data storage system. In fact, it is common for mobile app developers to rely upon client storage for internal data. However, during the possession of a mobile device by a rival, this internal data can be very easily accessed and used or manipulated. This can lead to several crimes like identity theft or PCI (external policy violation).
Solution:
One of the app security measures to consider here is to build an additional encryption layer over the OS’s base-level encryption. This gives a tremendous boost to data security.
4. Inadequate protection for Transport layer:
The transport layer is the pathway through which data transfer takes place between the client and the server. If the right mobile app security standards are not introduced at this point, any hacker can gain access to internal data to steal or modify it. This leads to severe crimes like identity thefts and frauds.
Solution:
To reinforce transport layer security, you should incorporate SSL Pinning in iOS and Android apps. Along with this, you can use industry-standard cipher suites instead of regular ones. Additionally, avoiding the exposure of user’s session ID because of mixed SSL sessions, alerting the user in case of an invalid certificate, using SSL versions of third-party analytics are common practices that can savethe users from a dangerous breach of security.
5. Unintended Leakage of data:
Unintended data leakage happens when critical mobile applications are stored in vulnerable locations on the mobile device. For example, an app is stored where it can easily get accessed by other apps or devices which ultimately results in the data breach of your app and unauthorized data usage.
Solution:
Monitoring common data leakage points such as logging, app background, caching, Browser cookie objects, and HTML5 data storage.
Besides these 5 mobile development security threats, there are some other commonly occurring roadblocks in the way of building secure mobile apps. Here they are:
Absence of multi-factor authentication – The process provides multiple layers of security before letting a person inside the application. It could be answering a personal question, OTP, SMS configuration, or other measures. The absence of multifactor authentication can lead to several issues which makes it a crucial part of answering how to make an app secure.
Inability to encrypt properly – A important element of mobile application security best practices is ensuring proper encryption. The inability of it can lead to code theft, intellectual property theft, privacy violation, among multiple other issues.
Malicious code Injection – User-generated content such as forms is often overlooked as a threat. Suppose a user adds in their id and password, the app then communicated with the server-side data to authenticate the information. Now the apps which do not restrict the character a user inputs open themselves to the risk of injecting code to access the server.
Reverse engineering – It is every secure mobile application development nightmare. The approach can be used to show how an app works in the backend and reveal the encryption algorithms while modifying the source code, etc.
Insecure data storage – insecure data storage can happen in multiple places inside an app – cookies, binary data store, SQL database, etc. If a hacker gets access to the database or device, they can alter legitimate apps to take out information to the machines.
After seeing the general threats which plague all the mobile applications and some of the Best mobile app security practices to follow for avoiding these issues, let us move on to the specifics about the Android and iOS mobile application security.
How to Make Android Apps Secure?
Some of the effective Android app security best practices to opt are:-
Encryption of data on External Storage –
Generally, the internal storage capacity of a device is limited. And this drawback often coerces users to use external devices such as hard disk and flash drives for safekeeping of the data. And this data, at times, consists of sensitive and confidential data as well. Since the data stored on the external storage device is easily accessible by all the apps of the device, it is very important to save the data in an encrypted format. One of the most widely used encryption algorithms by mobile app developers is AES or Advanced Encryption Standard.
Using Internal Storage for Sensitive Data –
All the Android Applications have an internal storage directory. And the files stored in this directory are extremely secure because they use MODE_PRIVATE mode for file creation. Simply put, this mode ensures that the files of one particular app cannot be accessed by other applications saved on the device. Thus, it is one of the mobile app authentication best practices to focus upon.
Using HTTPS –
The communications that take place between the app and the server ought to be over an HTTPS connection. Numerous Android Users often are connected to several open WiFi networks in public areas and using HTTP instead of HTTPS can leave the device vulnerable to many malicious hotspots which can easily alter the contents of HTTP traffic and make the device’s apps behave unexpectedly.
Using GCM instead of SMS –
In the time when Google Cloud Messaging or GCM did not exist, SMS was used in order to push data from servers to apps but today, GCM is used largely. But if you still have not made the switch from SMS to GCM, you must. This is because SMS protocol is neither safe nor encrypted. On top of it, SMS can be accessed and read by any other app on the user’s device. GCM communications are authenticated by registration tokens which are regularly refreshed on the client-side and they are authenticated using a unique API key on the server-side.
Other major mobile app development security best practices can include, Validation of User input, Avoiding the need for personal data, and usage of ProGuard before publishing the app. The Idea is to secure app users from as much malware as possible.
How to Make iOS Apps Secure?
Some of the iOS app security best practices to follow are:-
Storage of Data –
To greatly simplify your app’s architecture and improve its security, the best way is to store app data in memory instead of writing it on a disk or sending it to a remote server. Although if storing the data locally is your sole option, there are multiple ways to go:-
Keychain:
The best place to store small amounts of sensitive data which doesn’t need frequent access is Keychain. Data that is stored in keychains is managed by the OS but is not accessible by any other application. – Caches: If your data does not need to be backed up on iCloud or iTunes then you can store the data in the Caches directory of the application sandbox. – Defaults system: The defaults system is a convenient method for storing large amounts of data.
Networking security :
Apple is known for its security and privacy policies and for years, it has worked to reach this level. A few years ago, Apple had introduced App Transport Security which enforces third-party mobile apps to send network requests over a more secure connection, i.e., HTTPS.
Security of Sensitive Information –
The majority of mobile apps use sensitive user data such as address book, location, etc. But as a developer, you need to make sure that all the information that you’re asking the user for is, in fact, necessary to access and more importantly, to store. So, if the information you require can be accessed through a native framework, then it is redundant to duplicate and store that information.
We have now seen both Android and iOS mobile app security Practices for a Hack-Proof App. But no development can be so easy as it is written about. There are always certain challenges that are faced during a process. Let’s move forward and learn about the challenges which are faced and solved by almost every top app development companies in USA.
Challenges Associated With Mobile App Security
There is a proven record of how vulnerable mobile apps can be if not enough measures are taken for their security from external malware. Following are the challenges that can arise anytime if the mobile app security testing is not completed as per the requirement.
Device Fragmentation –
There are essential processes to be followed before the release of an application on the app stores. It is necessary to diversity of devices that cover different resolutions, functionalities, features, and limitations into your mobile app testing strategies. Detection of Device specific vulnerabilities can put the app developers one step ahead in app security measures. Not only devices but different versions of popular OS’s is an important step to cover before the app release to cover all the possible loopholes.
Weak Encryptions –
In the case of weak encryption, a mobile device is vulnerable to accepting data from any available device. Attackers with malware are in constant search for an open-end in public mobile devices and your app can be that open end if you do not follow a strong suit of the encryption process. So, investing your efforts into strong encryption is also one of the finest ways to make a hack-proof mobile app.
Weaker hosting controls –
It happens mostly during the development of a business’s first mobile app, which usually leaves the data exposed to the server-side systems. Therefore, the servers which are being used to host your app must have enough app security measures to avoid any unauthorized users from accessing important data.
Checklist for Mobile Application Security Guidelines
There are a number of things that every mobile app development company follows when they build secure applications. Here is a checklist that we commonly follow –
Use server-side authentication
Use cryptographic algorithms
Ensure user inputs meet check standards
Create threat algorithms to back data
Obsfucation to stop reverse engineering
There are many ways to make a hack proof mobile app, through a mobile app security audit, against the attacks from unknown sources and no amount of security measures can ever be enough. Looking into mobile app development security best practices is one way to go about it. Today, the digital world is out in the open for everyone’s use and no user is ever safe enough from malware and security breaches but these measures ensure that your personal data is safe in your digital devices.
As Clive Humby famously said, ‘Data is the new oil.’ It’s a commodity so valuable that cybercriminals go to great lengths to get their hands on it. And when they do, they use it for extortion and to sell to other criminals on the dark web. If that isn’t worrying enough, the means by which they try to acquire it can also cause havoc. They will infect entire systems with malware, take systems completely offline with ransomware and use sophisticated techniques to steal login credentials or brute force their way in. Today, it’s every firm’s business to keep their data secure. Here are some of the ways to strengthen yours.
The impact of a data breach
Data breaches can put companies out of business. 60% of those that suffer a cyberattack go under within six months. For the rest, there are significant repercussions. According to IBM’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report, incidents involving data security, such as malware, phishing and device theft, cost UK companies almost £3 billion to recover from. It’s a prolonged process, too. The average company took around nine months to discover and recover from an attack. On top of all this, of course, are lost income, reputational damage and the potential of large fines from the ICO.
1. Use tech and training to prevent phishing
Phishing attacks, usually sent via email, are one of the main ways that cybercriminals will try to steal login credentials or infect a system with malware. Making sure that you have a robust spam filtering tool, such as SpamExperts or Mimecast, will help filter out the vast majority of phishing and malware containing emails.
Of those that manage to get through, statistics show that around a third are opened and clicked on by recipients. This is often because cybercriminals go to great lengths to make these emails look genuine. The key to reducing such incidents lies in training staff to spot the tell-tale signs of phishing emails: poor English, lack of addressee name, email address not matching up with the name of the sender, dodgy-looking logos, etc. Employees also need to know how to deal with these emails: not to open them or any attachments or click on any links, how to report them and safely delete them.
2. Two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds another layer of security to the login process, usually asking employees to input a six or seven-digit security code sent to their phone. The advantage of implementing 2FA is that even if a cybercriminal gets hold of the username and password, they won’t have access to the additional code unless they also have the employee’s mobile phone. What’s more, as security codes are only valid for a few minutes, it doesn’t give criminals the time needed to crack them.
3. Virtual Private Networks
A virtual private network (VPN) provides employees with a secure environment in which to work. It does this by securing the connection to the network and encrypting data sent over it. It is particularly vital for those working over wi-fi networks, especially the significant number of employees now working remotely.
4. Automated software updates
Vulnerabilities in outdated applications are one of the biggest threats to data security and are actively targeted by cybercriminals. Updating applications as soon as a patch is released is essential to minimising the risk of a data breach. Unfortunately, too many businesses have paid the price of being slow to update their software.
There are several ways to automate updates. With a managed hosting solution, for example, your provider will automate the patching of your operating system, while you can use tools like Patchman to carry out patching on CMS websites like WordPress. Auto-updates can also be implemented using cPanel and Plesk and from within the admin panel of some website platforms.
Another way to keep applications up to date is to use Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions, such as Microsoft 365, instead of having standalone software installed on the network. Here, the provider will update the software automatically for you whenever they release a new version.
5. Encryption
If your data is encrypted, no-one can access it even if it is stolen. Encryption makes it useless to any cybercriminals and ensures that your important information and customer data isn’t used illegally. You can encrypt data in multiple situations. For example, your host can encrypt data stored on your servers, SSL certificates encrypt data transferred between your customers’ browsers and your website and email SSL certificates will encrypt your emails and attachments while verifying the authenticity of your email address to the recipient.
6. Remote backups
If in attempting to steal your data a cybercriminal deletes, corrupts or encrypts it with ransomware, the effects can be devastating. However, it’s not just cybercrime that can result in data loss, so too can hardware failure, human error and various other problems. The solution to not losing your data permanently and getting your systems back up and running quickly is to have an effective backup solution in place.
While there are many ways to do this, one of the most effective is to use the services of your hosting provider. At Anteelo, our backups can be scheduled and automated to take place at the frequencies you need, are stored remotely from your server, encrypted for security and integrity checked so you know they will be uncorrupted if you need to use them.
7. Secure hosting
A good web hosting provider will help keep your server and the data stored on it secure by using advanced security tools. At Anteelo, for example, we use powerful next-gen firewalls with intrusion detection and prevention tools to stop hackers and malware from getting access to your server.
Conclusion
Data is increasingly sought-after by cybercriminals and their modes of operation are getting more sophisticated. Companies need to put cybersecurity at the top of their priorities to prevent attacks that could potentially put them out of business. Hopefully, the measures mentioned here will help you increase the security of your firm’s data.
If you believed that phishing could be the only possible threat to cyber-security, then you need to hit the rock bottom! Cyber-attacks are expanding like spider webs over the internet to create havoc in the security system of various sectors across the globe. Just as a phishing attack, a smishing attack is a type of cyber-attack which is infamously trending and carries advanced techniques to obtain victim’s data.
Smishing is a blended word, made with the combination of SMS and phishing. Just as cyber-criminals use emails to phish people into opening malware-laden attachments, smishing attacks are carried out using text messages.
SMS phishing or smishing is an unethical practice of sending fraudulent cellular texts to users to trick them into downloading the attached file or redirected link. These attached links take users to malware-laden websites on their mobile phones.
Smishing text messages contain absurd phone numbers or links to lure customers for immediate response. Smishing attack on your cellular device can be deployed in any form of attention-seeking text.
These nefarious text messages could claim to be your bank asking for your financial information. It could also ask in a tricky way for your ATM number or account details to get access to your bank balance.
Recent Smishing Attack Example:
Just like phishing, smishing attack is deployed using cellular text messages with the motive to lure customers into giving away information. Smishing text messages often contain URLs or phone numbers.
The phone numbers usually have an automated voice system as a response. When it comes to SMS phishing, attackers use smart ways to trick victims into believing the text message they receive.
For instance, if a smishing message comes from a number “5000” instead of any actual phone number, it means it is sent through email on the cell phone. This is done to indicate a legitimate message to trick people.
In an article by Cyware, a smishing campaign, “Lucky Draw Campaign” was targeted on Indian Nokia owners. In February 2019, Nokia owners received a text message claiming they have won a lucky draw.
The message was impersonated to have come from ‘Nokia.com online shopping Pvt Ltd.co’, claiming that the recipient has won Tata Safari or Rs.12, 60,000. However, it urged recipients to pay to 6,500 Indian rupees to claim their prize.
How to Prevent Smishing Attacks?
Never click on any links in text messages which come from unknown resources.
Restrain from responding to personal text messages that ask for your personal details.
If a text message looks like an alert or shows any urgency, verify the legitimacy of the source first before responding.
Look out for messages that are no sent via phone number. Scammers often mask their identity so that their location or identity could not be traced.
Messages that might be sent at odd hours or apart from business hours are usually smishing attacks.
Never give away your bank details or financial information easily to any text message asking for your credentials or verification.
Cyber Security researchers highly recommend organizations as well as individuals to use good security awareness tools as a preventive measure.
As businesses gather and store ever greater quantities of data, managing it becomes increasingly challenging. To get the maximum value from it, it needs to be easily accessed and compiled so that it can be analysed. However, when it is stored in separate silos across numerous departments, this is hard to achieve. The solution that many companies are opting for in order to overcome these issues is data warehousing. In this post, we’ll look at the pros and cons of setting up a data warehouse.
What is a data warehouse?
A data warehouse is a centralised storage space used by companies to securely house all their data. As such, it becomes a core resource from which the company can easily find and analyse the datasets it needs to generate timely reports and gain the meaningful insights needed to make important business decisions.
The pros of data warehousing
The growing popularity of data warehousing is down to the benefits it provides business. Key, here, is that a unified data storage solution enhances decision making, enabling businesses to perform better in the marketplace and thus improve their bottom line. As a data warehouse also means data can be analysed faster, another advantage is that it puts the company in a better position to react to opportunities and threats that come their way.
With the entire array of the company’s data available to them, data managers can make more accurate market forecasts and do so quicker, helping them implement data-driven strategies swiftly and before their competitors. The accuracy of market forecasts is improved due to the warehouse’s ability to store huge amounts of historical data that can highlight patterns in market trends and shifting consumer behaviours over time.
Data warehousing can also help companies reduce expenditure by enabling them to make more cost-effective decisions, whether that’s in procurement, operations, logistics, communications or marketing. It can also massively improve the customer experience, with end to end customer journey mapping helping the company personalise product recommendations, issue timely and relevant communications, deliver better quality customer service and much more.
The cons of data warehousing
While the centralised storage of data brings many benefits, it does have some drawbacks that companies need to consider. For example, with such vast amounts of data in one place, finding and compiling the datasets needed for analyses can take time. However, not as long as would be needed if they were all kept in different silos.
Another potential issue is that when data is stored centrally, all the company’s data queries have to go through the warehouse. If the company’s system lacks the resources to deal with so many queries, this can slow down the speed at which data is processed. However, using a scalable cloud solution for data warehousing, where additional resources, charged on a pay per use basis, can be added as and when needed, eradicates this issue.
For many companies, the biggest obstacle for setting up a data warehouse is the cost. When undertaken in-house, there is often significant capital expenditure required for the purchase of hardware and software, together with the overheads of running the infrastructure. Additionally, there are ongoing staffing costs for experienced IT professionals. Again, the solution comes in the form of managed cloud services, like Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), where the hardware and operating systems are provided without the need for capital expenditure and where software licencing can be significantly less expensive. What’s more, the service provider manages the infrastructure on your behalf, reducing staffing requirements. Even where specialised IT knowledge is required in-house, such as with integrating different systems, the 24/7 technical support from your provider will be there to offer expertise when needed.
Conclusion
Any company undergoing the process of digital transformation needs to consider the benefits of data warehousing. The centralised storage of all the company’s data is essential for companies that wish to integrate their existing business processes with today’s advanced digital technologies. Doing this means you can fully benefit from big data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and all the crucial insights they offer to drive the company forward.
Setting up a data warehouse in-house, however, presents several major challenges. There is significant capital expenditure required at the outset, together with on-going overheads. In addition, integrating a diverse set of company systems so that data can be centralised is not without its technical challenges. By opting for a cloud solution, however, cap-ex is removed, costs are lowered and many of the technical challenges are managed on your behalf.
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