Testbytes Software

Different Types of Mobile Application Testing

Posted on July 13, 2017 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

The demand for mobile application testing services is at an all time high. Businesses, focusing on apps, do need the help of testing services to make their app a success. Thousands of apps are flooding into the app market daily. Unfortunately, most of them remain as a zombie in the app stores.
Lack of awareness about mobile app testing is one of the main reasons for making your app unnoticed in the app stores. We are trying to give you an idea about different types of mobile application testing via this article.

Table of Contents
1) Functional Testing
2) Performance Testing
3) Memory Leakage Testing
4) Interrupt Testing
5) Usability testing
6) Installation Testing
7) Security testing
8) Recover-ability Testing
9) Compatibility Testing
Let’s learn about different types of testing process involved in mobile application testing services and how does it differ from desktop testing:
1) Functional Testing

You have to do functional testing in order to make sure that your app is working as it is needed.
Mobile apps need lots of human consideration while testing and as it’s time consuming, complex and exhaustive process, it is unwise to perform functional testing on devices manually. So, always perform it automatically.
In the case of desktops, this is a type of black-box testing which aims at checking whether system function is proper as intended and can users operate it with ease.

2) Performance Testing

Performance Testing can be called as an interesting phase of testing. Here a tester addresses a set of varied challenges such as draining of battery owing to heavy battery usage, bandwidth problems while switching from 2G to 3G or Wifi, difficulties while transferring heavy files because of low memory, etc. Therefore, the purpose of Performance Testing is to understand the performance of an app under varying loads and different users.

Even though, the idea of performance testing of desktops is irrelevant, as normally it is assumed to have only one user.
Here individual functions such as Use Case, configuration, troubleshooting are tested.

3) Memory Leakage Testing

It’s important to perform the memory leakage test to make sure your app is utilizing optimized memory on different mobile devices.
When compared to computer systems, the inbuilt memory of a mobile device is very low. Most of the OS environments shut applications that are consuming too much memory.
So, testers must ensure that an app does not slow the mobile devices by performing mobile leakage testing.

4) Interrupt Testing

It’s natural that we face many interruptions while using an app. Some of the common interruptions are receiving SMS or incoming calls, issues while connecting external devices, inserting power cable when the app is running, etc.
To make sure that your app is able to withstand all these interruptions; a tester is supposed to perform interrupt testing in mobile devices as well as desktops.

5) Usability testing

The success of an app depends on its flexibility to use. A good app should be able to give amazing user experience to the customers. To ensure that your app is user-friendly, usability testing services may help you.
Usability testing in desktop differs from mobile application testing as it tests distinctive features like configuration, customization, high personalization and diversity of users.

6) Installation Testing

It’s important to check the consistency of your app during installing and uninstalling processes.
Frequently crashing apps during these processes do not survive in the market.
Installation testing checks whether the software is compatible with the desktop/mobile and it does not affect the navigation or the flow of other apps.

7) Security testing

If an app is vulnerable to security threats, people hardly use that app. So, you have to ensure the credibility of your app by performing security testing services.
Security testing helps you in giving assurance to your customers that your app is free from security threats. Similarly, desktop testing demands more security with respect to its access, along with data protection.

8) Recover-ability Testing

While recovery ability testing, crash recovery, and interruptions during transactions are tested.
Recovery ability testing mainly checks how an app works on transactions when there is an app failure, and also analyses whether the system (be it mobile or desktop) recovers the data after suspended connections.

9) Compatibility Testing

Compatibility Testing is performed on mobile phones to know whether the app works on different devices.
As there is a number of devices with different screen size, resolution, hardware and software functionality, versions, etc.
Compatibility testing determines the user interface of the application is as per the desired screen size, no text is partially inaccessible or invisible.

Compatibility testing for desktop apps aims at checking whether desktop apps are compatible with different platforms such as Mac OS, Windows, Linux, etc., report defects and fixing them.

Even though new devices come up every day, the fundamentals of testing use almost the same logic for both mobile and desktop testing.
In spite of all these similarities, there could be differences in some point of view. Comparing to desktop testing, mobile software testing seems to be much difficult as they need to test configurations, work on screen size, storage limitations etc.

5 Major Benefits of Using a Bug Tracking System

Posted on July 4, 2017 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

Any issue in design, requirement, specifications and coding that cause incorrect results is called a bug. In a software development life cycle, tracking bugs is one of the most important steps and without which the entire process would be incomplete. Bug tracking is important for every product to maintain quality, to save time and money. Selecting a right bug tracking tool can help you improve software quality assurance.
Now let’s see the major benefits that a bug tracking system provides:

Deliver High Quality Product

A bug tracking system assures that detected bugs are fixed. It helps to remove flaws in the product by controlling the work of each team member. The system can track problems and analyse efforts taken by team members to fix a bug or an issue. This results in delivering efficient product on-time within a given budget.

Improve Return on Investment (ROI) by Reducing the Cost of Development

A bug tracking system can prioritize bugs and assign issues. This helps to spot repetitive problems and concentrate on important issues. The development team will be able to focus on high priority bugs rather than wasting time on smaller issues. This improves team’s productivity and reduces cost of development.

Better Communication, Teamwork and Connectivity

A bug tracking system provides better communication through chat interfaces and email notifications. This reduces the communication gap and informs the right person to test or fix bugs on time. The centralized data system provides access to real-time data that helps in attempting new bugs, exploring application and preparing clear reports.

Detect Issues Earlier and Understand Defect Trends

The most obvious advantage is that it allows companies to keep a record of the bug issues that are detected, who fixed them, and how long it took to fix a particular issue. A bug tracking system detects bugs in the formal testing phase. This helps to create a bug-free data in the production stage.
This system provides dependable metrics that can be referred in future to know the type of defects previously reported. The team can relate bugs to change codes, tests and other data that can be used for analysis of defect trends.

Better Service and Customer Satisfaction

A bug tracking system allows end users to report issues and bugs directly on their applications. Common issues can be analysed and solved through product modifications. Most of the tools are designed in such a way that you can use it easily without any special training.
It provides automated response to end users. They get updates and status of development through alerts.
This also provides better and relevant service to customers by allowing feedbacks and suggestions.
A good bug tracking system results in happy and satisfied customers. Less or no bugs leads customer to use the product efficiently, they find products more reliable, trustworthy and even may recommend it to others.

Conclusion
A bug tracking system is relevant to find, fix bugs and other related issues to reduce cost of development and save time. If a defect management system is used right, then you understand your work atmosphere better, thus improving overall efficiency.
By using this, a company can manage resources in a better way and offer solutions much faster. Bug tracking can be used in each and every stage of the development process, thus helping developers to be content and more productive. This needs to be done rigorously and if you are not using it, then probably your development efforts can go in vain.

11 Guidelines for Mobile App Performance Testing

Posted on June 30, 2017 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

Performance testing services is done to provide information about apps regarding speed, stability, reliability and scalability. It also determines speed & degradation of systems with different configurations under both controlled and uncontrolled standards. More importantly, it unfolds what needs to be improved within an app before the product is launched in the market.

The General Guidelines for Performance Testing
The methodology for software performance testing can vary in different steps, but the objective of the whole process remains the same. The following are the list of general guidelines for performance testing of mobile apps:
1) Plan for Test: Once we are ready for a test, we need to have a proper planning and check for available resources. The performance test plan should describe the overall strategy for testing the complete mobile app.
2) Identification of Testing Environment: While testing, it is important to identify the software, hardware, tools and network configurations. This will allow the design and development team to identify the performance test errors at an early stage.
Different types of testing environment:
a) Replica of production system
b) Actual production system
c) Production system with less number of servers of low specifications
d) Production system with less number of servers of same specifications
3) Define Necessary Formats for Displaying System Usage: Necessary formats need to be defined for measuring the performance of an application. Some of the possible formats are:

Task Distribution Diagram: This gives information on the number of users for a particular process and the time taken to load. The peak and off usages are determined through this.
Transaction Profile Sheet: This provides information about the transaction names, a summary of a number of transactions at a particular point of time, screen navigation, etc.
User Profile Diagram: This depicts the user load time and pages accessed by the users

4) Deciding what to test first: The following are some criteria for decision-making about which process to be tested first. It is a very important step as it guides the total performance testing process.
·         Processes having the highest business risks are tested
·         Processes that are most frequently used are tested
·         Applications’ peak usage hours of the day are analysed
·         Peak days of the month, quarter, and year
·         Processes that are linked
·         Processes which are resource intensive
5) Documenting: The purpose of documenting the process is to obtain information necessary to create virtual users such as:
·         User Actions
·         Expected results of each action
·         Input data fields
·         Valid data for input
Identifying these properties shall give a clear scope of performance test against each user action.

6) Establish which data to use: Before starting, it’s important to establish the data to be used. Any real-time data can also be imported from the development servers and the same is used to analyse results and reports.
7) Define what resources are to be tested: Performance testing involves defining the resources that are involved in testing. This includes app servers like WebSphere, Weblogic, Tomcat, IIS Server; database server like DB2, Oracle and network resources. These resources form the total system and therefore defining them is critical.
8) Performance testing should be done after functional testing: There is no question of doing performance testing when functional testing is not done. Functional testing confirms the working of the system as expected with all aspects of the UI, multilingual navigation, navigation between pages and off-site, etc.
9) Done at the time of system-testing phase: System testing is a phase of software testing in which the complete system is tested. So, performance testing should be taken up during system testing phase only.
10) Tools should be identified: There are plenty of tools available for doing performance testing. But, we need to identify tools that may be useful for system testing.
11) Execution and Communicating Results: Once the performance testing is completed, we need to summarize the findings and test results. Later, it is distributed to respective resource owners for making corrections if any.
Once the corrective measures/fixes are done, the entire tests need to be repeated and the final summary report is taken.
Conclusion
While an inclusive performance testing strategy will continue to kill bugs for all tech innovations, this will certainly help you to bring the best out of your testing efforts. With perspectives and tools emerging each day, testers need to leverage on this testing mechanism for their mobile app testing services.

How Important is Penetration Testing to Network Security

Posted on June 19, 2017 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

Penetration testing can create wonders for upcoming enterprises if they come up with the right solution according to the demands and blend them with the automated testing method for security expert analysis.

Penetration testing services is not just about jumping into the network security by running different steps at random, but it is about creating an organized, step by step plan that details on what, when, and how exactly are you going to do things.
How Important is Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing is an essential process that needs to be performed on a regular basis in every organization to secure the network system. Penetration testing is of different types, which include:

Network Penetration Testing
Application Penetration Testing
Wireless Penetration Testing
Infrastructure Penetration Testing

But the main problem is that many of us will have a misconception that once penetration testing is done, their systems are safe forever. Such people will never get the real benefits of this process until they follow the method regularly and will practically have to face disappointing outcomes in the future.
The need for conducting a penetration test varies according to businesses as they all work in a different way. However, the question is, what are the main benefits that a company gets from penetration testing and here we have listed a few:

Manage the Risk Factors

One of the most important benefits of pen testing or penetration testing is that it will provide you the baseline to work with the risk factors in a structured and optimal way. In this testing, the number of vulnerabilities is listed out, which is found in the target environment and also the risk factors associated with it. At first, the sequence with the highest risk is tackled and then followed to the lower ones.

Increase the Business Continuity

Business continuity is the main aim for every organization and any hurdles to this can cause a huge loss to the entire company. A breakdown in business continuity can be due to many reasons and lack of security loopholes can be one of them.
If your systems are insecure, then it might suffer more breaches. It is always important to set a stronger encryption to avoid MITM (Man In The Middle) attacks. This is because, even hackers are hired today by the rivals to stop business continuity by exploiting the vulnerabilities of the competitors to gain access to their network and also create a denial of service condition, which causes a crash in the working of the company.
3. Evaluate Security Investment
Penetration testing provides an opportunity to know about the current situation of a company and analyse the existing potential breach points. It gives us a clear idea about the entire security system and helps us to ensure whether the configuration system management has been followed properly within the company.
Such type of testing methods helps to evaluate the security investments, that is the total investment required to secure the entire network systems, what is needed, what works properly, and what does not work properly.
4. Protect your Clients, Projects or Third Parties
A vulnerability that attacks a company not only causes problems to themselves, but also to their clients, third parties and even the projects a company is handling with. However, if a company performs penetration testing regularly and takes necessary actions for security, then it will help others to have trust and confidence in that organization.

5. Guard Reputation of the Company and Maintain Public Relationships
A good public relationship and reputation are built by a company through years of struggle, regular hard work, and a large amount of investment. Even a small security issue or vulnerability attack can cause major damage to their reputation in public.
6. Help any sort of Financial Damage and avoid Fines
Simple unnoticed breaches can cause a great loss to the financial support of the company and systematic penetration testing can help you protect your organizations. Such testing keeps the major activities updated within the auditing system, which can avoid fines in the future.
7. Helps to keep a Check on Cyber Defence Capability
During the process of penetration testing, the target company should be able to identify multiple attacks and should be able to respond accordingly. The effectiveness of the protected devices like IDS, WAF or IPS can also be checked during penetration testing.
8. Performed after Deployment of New Infrastructure & Application
Pen testing should be certainly performed in companies after the deployment of a new infrastructure and application, like updating of the firmware, changes in the firewall rule, patches and upgrades to software. Because once changes happens in software performance testing, it’s easy for breaches to occur, so it is always better to keep the network secured.
9. Gap Analysis Maintenance
Pen testing/penetration testing is not a one time event, instead it should be a continual process that measures how well the entire security system performs. It also helps companies to gain awareness on gaps if any, in the system at a given point of time.
Penetration testing is necessary for any businesses that wants their network to be secure and operations to continue without any service disruption. With high-profile data vulnerabilities continuing to dominate, methods for enterprise cyber security have started to change. If you fail to test the network security and environment prior to use, it might be impossible to ensure complete security. And this is why penetration testing makes sense for organisations of all sizes.

How to Defend Against Ransomware Attacks [Infographic]

Posted on June 15, 2017 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

The global cyber attack by WannaCry ransomware had affected almost 200,000 organisations in around 150 countries.
But, is WannaCry one of its kind? Hardly. Ransomwares are malicious software designed to block access to a system and threatens to delete or publish the user’s data until a ransom amount is paid. Reveton in 2012, CryptoLocker in 2013, CryptoWall in 2014, Fusob in 2015-2016 are some WannaCry predecessors.

Ransomware attacks have undergone drastic changes over the years. The new variants seem to be more sophisticated, improved and more dangerous. Ransomware can encrypt machines, causing damage to important files and confidential customer information. Such operations mostly succeed because they capitalize on fear, which finally forces victims to pay the cyber criminals.
Are you concerned about your business or running in the face of an attack? Our safety checklist will help you to defend your organization against the threat of ransomware.

8 Formidable Challenges While Testing an Online Banking Application

Posted on June 13, 2017 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

Being the most complex and advanced enterprise solution, banking applications needs to be carefully considered in both functional as well as security aspects to ensure that customers and assets are protected from malware.

Internet-based electronic banking or online banking applications have become a necessity for customers. As a countless number of banking transactions happens every day, these apps need to have high level performance, with features that meets the needs of a customer.
Few things that should be noted to constitute a consistent, bug-free, banking application:

The app needs a solid reporting system to keep track on daily transactions
Strong auditing is required to troubleshoot issues
It should have the capacity to adhere complex and advanced work flows
Banking apps should have the feature of integration with other apps such as Trading accounts and Bill-pay utility accounts
It should possess multi-tier functionality to support multiple user sessions

In this blog, we go through the key challenges faced while testing a Banking Application:
1) Strict Security Regulation: It is necessary for banking applications to protect customer data and private information as well as the assets. Therefore, during mobile software testing, these things should be considered by providing a secure testing environment.
A banking app should be compatible with all operating systems, versions, devices etc. Along with iOS and Android, other versions including Blackberry and WP8 also need to be tested. Mobile testing tools that support both native and web properties should be used for wide usage.
To ensure that the software doesn’t have any flaws, the QA team needs to check both negative as well as positive sides of the system and report it before any unauthorized access happens. The bank should also use other security measures like an access validation code or one-time password for better safety. For security regulation testing, automation tools like HPWebInspect and IBM AppScan should be used and for manual testing- Paros proxy, Proxy Sniffer, HTTP watch etc. should be put to use.
2) Complex Data: This is one of the major challenges that can occur while testing a bank application. No apps can en sure that the back-end databases of bank system will not be affected by malware or all the data within is protected. So, it is necessary that the mobile testers need to have a pool of accounts that can be used for the testing solutions.
A bank definitely needs to have an automation tool to constantly check database connectivity and logical functions. It should be done over the virtual private network (VPN) to assure safety on its private data.
3) Active Support of Devices: About 80% of people spend their time on using mobile applications. Mobile manufacturers introduce new features on a daily basis to provide customers a better and friendly user experience. Similarly, banking apps also need to bring in revisions to offer a better experience on latest devices.
4) Privacy is Essential: Privacy plays a very important role in mobile banking. This feature defines how much secure a mobile banking app is for its users. Therefore, automated testing must be done for every single update to ensure protection for all private information. It is essential for a bank to have an automated tool system that run tests periodically without the need for a software tester to manually test each function within the app.

5) Real-time Activity: Apps should have the capacity to provide real-time updates and this is more challenging when it deals with network connectivity issues.
6) Proper Testing and Development: Bugs can affect any application and this is the reason your banking app should follow proper app testing procedure. Making a banking application with user-friendly functioning and proper security checks require extensive revision and software testing.
7) Updated Market Trends: Consumer requirements and market trends keep changing invariably. Therefore, application features, usability etc. have to be revised and kept updated.
8) Performance Failures: Performance levels involve connectivity, infrastructure, and back-end integration. The transaction happening through the apps should be monitored at regular intervals. Also, Load and Stress tests must be performed regularly to ensure multiple support transactions on anytime.
Best Practices
A few best practices that will help you manage certain challenges in testing banking applications are:

A clearly defined methodology of software performance testing
Testing that encompasses the complete work flow
Testing for functionality, performance and security
Testing of the app for UX, UI, data integrity and support multiple users

Testing banking applications can be a complicated deal, but if the key methods and principles are placed right, then it can be beneficial with long-lasting advantages. The right blend of testers and processes are key factors of a successful mobile banking app.

7 Best Practices You Can Consider for Functional Testing

Posted on June 1, 2017 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

Testing plays a vital role in any software or application development.
Functional testing is done to test features or functionality of an application or software. All the possibilities, including failure and boundary conditions are considered in functional testing.

Any functionality is tested by providing inputs, observing its output and comparing the actual results with the expected ones. Here are some effective procedures or best practices that may come handy while you perform functional testing:
1. Collect information required to perform testing
It is important to know what is to be tested and what the plan or procedure is, for testing. The development team has information about critical user commands and processes. Collect the information and test the critical things first.
It is important to be aware of market demands for product development. Document or matrix should be prepared to link the product to the requirement and to the test cases. Matrices should be modified as per the changes in requirement.
2. Make Test plan and test cases
Planning for what should be done to perform the testing, includes goals and scope of testing, number of people, hardware and software tools to be involved in the testing and schedule of testing, and number of test cases that should be written to perform testing. Test cases are nothing but input data based on the functionality’s specification. These test cases should be arranged and ranked as per priority to reduce delay and risk. The development team should review these test plans.
3. Execute the test
Test plans and actual functionality should match to execute the test correctly. Test cases should be written in such a way that it canbe modified if necessary with the changing needs of the product. For further analysis, problems faced and its solutions can be documented.
4. Consider the automated testing
Automated testing is done to improve quality of the product or software and also to save time. The tester has to decide about what should be automated.
Automated testing is slightly costlier in short span; but, in the long run it is more beneficial for the product. Avoid performing automation on things that can be cheaply and effectively done by manual testing.
5. Manage defects with data storage system
Many people working on same functionality may result in repetition of defect reports, incorrect order of issue solving, consideration of wrong defects and much more. To avoid this, acentralized data storage system should be managed which can be referred by everyone.

The system includes standard templates for defect reporting and verifying, ranking of defects as per priority and information about the assignment of tasks. This helps in solving problemsone by one.
6. Reporting of test results
A test result report is presented in a specific format which includes summary of all test cases executed and the time taken at each stage for each feature with its status and progress. It also provides details of any new defect found during testing.
Overall, test result report should be presented in a clear and simple way for understanding of the development team.
7. Analysis
Problems and options in both testing and development can be detected during analysis. It helps in improving procedures followed in product development. Analysis is helpful to make product success.

3 Phases Involved in Testbytes Penetration Testing Process

Posted on May 29, 2017 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

Penetration testing is performed to determine vulnerabilities in network, computer systems and applications. Standard penetration testing process involves analysis of conventional vulnerabilities and either software testing or network security scanning. The Testbytes penetration testing approach is a bit different from the usual vulnerability assessment tests. We focus on catering to your needs with a testing process that reflects quality.

The Process
The penetration testing process involves three phases: pre-engagement, engagement and post-engagement.
Pre-engagement
Planning and preparation
A successful penetration testing process involves lots of preparations before the actual testing process begins. It is important for every party involved in the testing process to be informed about every new step taken. Therefore, holding a meeting between the testers and the clients is the best way to start.
Purpose of the penetration test
If there is no clear purpose for conducting the penetration test, the results won’t be great. Therefore, the objective of penetration testing is determined during the meeting.
Scoping
It involves taking decisions regarding the machines, systems and network to be used, the operational requirements and the people involved.
The results
The form in which the end results will be presented is also discussed during the meeting.
Duration
Testbytes has different projects to handle at a time and therefore, it is necessary to allot the timing and duration for the penetration test so that the other works can also be done uninterrupted. Also, proper planning about the test duration will reduce risks of neglecting testing steps due to time constraints.
Documentation
Most of the information finalized during the meeting must be documented so that testers can use it in future. It must include the important steps and the expected outcome that the testers can refer to perform effective penetration testing.

An effective penetration testing involves the testers trying out illegal ways to determine the vulnerabilities. Also, the information gathered during the process is confidential. Therefore, it is necessary for the testers to sign certain legal documents before they start, to avoid trouble.
Collecting information and analysis
After planning and preparation, the next step is to gather information regarding the systems or networks on which the testing is to be performed. The online website of the targeted system is the best place to start information gathering. All these gathered information will be used during the later stages of penetration testing.
Engagement
There are many tools available these days to perform penetration testing. However, the judgement regarding the approach, tools, vulnerabilities etc. is done manually. A testing process is best done by using both automation and traditional testing process simultaneously.
Penetration testing must be performed in locations where there are no restrictions on ports or services by the Internet provider.
Application layer testing
The tester performs the testing process with regard to the different roles of the application. This involves the tester checking if the users can access the data that they are actually not allowed to access. Also, the developers must ensure that all the functionalities and application security have been set up before sending it to the testers so that they can perform the testing process effectively. In case the application uses a backend API, it has to be separately tested.
Network layer testing
Network layer testing can be automated since most of the protocols have been clearly defined and have standard modes of interaction. The testing tools can be used to determine misconfigurations and vulnerabilities and to identify a service or a software version. Testing automation helps to perform the tasks faster than when done manually. However, it does not work for the entire testing process. The testing tools help to determine the potential attack; however, it is up to the tester to interpret the vulnerabilities and act accordingly.
Segmentation check
Segmentation check involves the same testing process performed during the initial stages of network layer testing. During this step, the tester must ensure that:

All isolated LANs do not have access into the CDE
Each network segment isolated from CDE does not really have any access into the CDE

In scenarios that involve large number of network segments that have been isolated from CDE, using a representative subset for testing can help reduce the number of segmentation checks. The tester performs test on individual segments to make sure that all security controls are working as expected. In case it has been found out that the LANs have access to the CDE, the testers must try to limit the access or perform a complete a network layer penetration test to keep check on the access.

Access to cardholder data
In case the testers are able to access the cardholder data during the penetration testing process, the clients must be notified instantly. The testers must also document details of the data that was accessed and how it was accessed.
Post-engagement
After performing penetration testing, there are certain things that both the testers and the clients must do.
Remedial practices
There may be some vulnerability that is left undetected even after performing effective penetration testing. They occur mainly due to weak development practices or ineffective security controls. The testers will investigate the whole application to determine the hidden vulnerabilities.
Retest detected risks
After correcting the vulnerabilities that have been detected, the application will be retested to check whether the enhancements made still have the risk. If the retest is performed long time after the original test, it is important to perform a new testing engagement. Whether it is required or not can be determined after analyzing the quantity of changes that have been made after the original test.
Documentation
The testers document the changes that have been made during the test. This involves the new accounts created for testing and the tools installed by the testers to perform testing. These details will later be removed so that nobody can use it against the client organization.

8 Important Steps To Secure Your Mobile App

Posted on May 23, 2017 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

Mobile apps are of great help when it comes to money transactions, booking tickets etc. But, do you know that security for apps have now become so low? so there are a lot of hackers waiting for a chance to steal valuable user information such as credit card and bank details. So, it is important for apps to be secured.

You may be well aware of what hackers can do to a software or application. They steal data, create duplicate stuff and can even take hold of personal assets including money. Not if you can secure the mobile applications with the following 8 steps:
STEP 1 – Secure the source code
It is possible that the app is exposed to vulnerabilities at the development stage.

Always protect the application with encryption
Scan the source code for vulnerabilities
The application code should be easy to update and rebuild and should be portable between devices and OS.
Be aware of app file size, running time, memory, data and battery when securing the app. Having better security but losing the performance of the app or users is not what you want.
Do not rely on app store approval; it may or may not be accurate

STEP 2 – Have security measures to protect data and deny unauthorized access
Verify Application Programming Interface (API) to prevent transfer of sensitive data in wrong hands

Create encrypted containers to store data safely
Data encryption and encrypted connections through virtual private network is extra secure

STEP 3 – Identifications, Authentication, and Authorization

The authentication and authorization technology of API adds an extra layer of security.
Ensure that the APIs used in the app allows access only to the most important parts of your application.
OAuth2 is a new framework that helps in building strong security connections. installing this in the server and customizing according to the needs will let the user permissions to collect credentials between client and end-user.
OpenID Connect will allow the user to use the same credentials that have been used once for multiple domains, with one ID.

STEP 4 – Activate a good mobile encryption policy

Use file-level encryption.
Align the codes of application as the passwords and data are not directly saved in the device. In case they have to be stored, make sure that they are encrypted.

STEP 5 – Implement a strong API security strategy

Follow the security measures for well-built API security i.e. identifications, authentication, and authorization
Ensuring API is very important

STEP 6 – Test, test, and test again for better security for apps

Never get tired of testing.
Test the data security problems and session management
Penetration testing helps to solve the weakness of the system
Emulators will explain the performance of an app in any device or OS under a simulated environment

STEP 7 – Alert User
Developers and testers can’t always be a user’s protectors. In that case,

Include sufficient pointers if any kind of vulnerability detected
Warn the users to download only from authorized sites

STEP 8 – With BYOD policy, be alert and use some extra precaution
Some companies allow employees to use their own devices and this open network system will lead to more security threats.

Activate a virtual private network system for a more secure connection
Protect devices with anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spam
Only allow authorized devices
Block transactions from rooted and jailbreaking devices

By following these 8 steps diligently, your mobile app can be secured in general. You can also get a professional tester to ensure your app is secure.

security for apps can never be at100%, it’s not a negative statement. in turn, this means constant monitoring and timely testing with bug fixing is the best way to ensure maximum safety of your app.

7 Possible Security Testing Mistakes that Can Occur Anytime

Posted on May 18, 2017 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

Mobile apps become a double- edged sword especially when a mobile payment application has to do mass transfers. New features are prone to hacking and extortion if not handled with care. NowSecure Mobile Security Report 2016 has found that 25% of the mobile applications always deal with at-least one highly extended security risk. When attacks on mobile applications increased, authorities started considering security checks before launching the app.

Here, we are going to discuss about 7 possible security testing errors that may occur but can be avoided:

Failing to understand how an application is exposed to risk

We know that to cure a disease, we have to understand the cause first. So, it’s necessary to analyse the possible security risks that can affect the user, device and systems, and the damages it can bring. ‘Threat modeling’ is a practice which helps organizations to analyse the potential of risk, measuring up the development and growth of the threat. Usually, the risks happen to be identity theft and financial fraud, where the password and user name to any kind of financial account of an individual is hacked. The type of attack depends on the hacker’s motive.

Failing to connect security with application design

Usually, security testing is left to be done at the end of the development process or is never done at all. This is mainly due to the misconception among developers that security testing costs a lot. But, patching up the bugs after the application reaches the audience is more expensive than designing a security checked code from beginning.

Lacking the quality in security testing

Checking vulnerabilities and block box testing should be included while performing security tests. Penetration testing has the ability to prevent bugs and malware from real world hackers and keeps apps secure. It is always better to arrange a professional security than an in- house testing team with little knowledge in security testing.

Use end-end encryption in data

Using weak or no encrypted data is a commonly made mistake which make data theft easier for the hacker. To avoid malwares, it’s better to use the end-end encryption in data for all data transferred through mobile devices. Apart from that, it is also important to input the encryption feature in devices so that non transmitted data is also secured. This has to be built directly into the device.

Exposing sensitive data

Try not to use password remembering feature which may lead to accidental login without the user being aware. Easy access to the login details can help hackers find the weakest points of an account. Never keep sensitive data unattended. Always ensure their safety. An experienced hacker may always try tricks on users to retrieve information.

Limit app features

Avoid adding features that doesn’t add value to your app. Keep the number of features to a minimum; it ensures that the app leaves a smaller surface for security attacks to happen, thus increasing safety. . THE same applies to permission requests, and therefore, ask permissions only for the necessary details.

Develop a security response plan

A 100% secure application is not possible, even though it passes through every type of testing. Technology is growing fast that new vulnerabilities are also being made every day to beat security plans.

We just can’t do anything about it.
But!
A critical action plan can be implemented by:-
1. Monitoring the device, identifying every unusual activity
2. Appointing an in/out house team to identify and recover threats
3. Having policies that help you to limit the damages