The Critical Imperative of Mobile App Security in 2025

The Critical Imperative of Mobile App Security in 2025

Welcome back to Upwardly Mobile, the podcast tackling the high-stakes world of mobile app development and API security, sponsored by Approov—the leaders in cross-platform app attestation technology1. In this episode, we delve into the essential reasons why mobile app security is not just important, but a critical imperative in today's digital landscape.
Episode Highlights:
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The Flourishing Mobile App Market and Growing Threats: We kick off by highlighting the massive growth of the mobile app market, with billions of smartphone users worldwide2. This widespread adoption, while offering great opportunities, also presents a larger attack surface for malicious actors3. Today over 85% of the world’s population own smartphones. The Apple App Store and Google Play Store boast millions of apps, and a significant portion of mobile device time is spent using these apps2. This popularity translates to a market predicted to generate almost a trillion dollars in revenue by 2023, making mobile apps indispensable3. However, this also means increased opportunities for hackers to exploit security vulnerabilities3.
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Understanding Mobile Application Security: We define mobile application security as a technique for ensuring the software security posture of high-value mobile applications across various operating systems like iOS and Android3. It's about protecting digital identities from fraud and preventing attacks on users and organisations3. Attackers target mobile apps to access accounts, commit fraud, steal data, conduct espionage, or spread malware4.
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The Costs of Security Breaches: Ignoring mobile app security can lead to severe consequences, including the loss of sensitive personal data, financial losses, and damage to an organisation's reputation5. Furthermore, organisations can face financial penalties due to regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA if compromised data is not protected5.
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Key Security Risks in Mobile Apps: We discuss some of the most prevalent security risks affecting mobile apps, as outlined by the OWASP Mobile Top 10. These include inadequate cryptography, reverse engineering, obtrusive functionality, code tampering, poor client code quality, insecure data storage, authentication, communication, and authorization6. The unique technologies used in mobile necessitate custom tooling for effective security testing6.
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The Importance of Mobile Application Security Testing (MAST): We explore why Mobile Application Security Testing (MAST) is crucial for identifying and addressing weaknesses in mobile applications3.... Implementing MAST early in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) can help developers lower application security risks before release4.... A thorough MAST strategy combines static analysis (SAST) to identify vulnerabilities in source code, dynamic analysis (DAST) to test running applications, and behavioural testing to track app actions and data flows7....
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Shielding Mobile Apps and APIs: We touch upon the importance of end-to-end security for businesses relying on mobile apps10. Protecting against API vulnerabilities alone is insufficient; defence against API abuse is also necessary10. Ensuring only genuine app instances can use your API is key to isolating your mobile business from attacks10. A recommended approach includes implementing a shield for your mobile app and its APIs to protect data at rest and in transit, implementing security basics like code obfuscation and certificate pinning, and establishing a regular pentesting program11.
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The Persistent Threat of Stolen Credentials and the Role of MFA: We address the fact that many mobile breaches originate from compromised or stolen credentials, often through phishing or password reuse12. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is a vital defence mechanism, requiring multiple forms of verification to reduce t