Better safe, than sorry

Real-time app monitoring solutions help enterprises get a single consolidated view of actionable security intelligence and fight against hackers.

By Govindraj Basatwar

In January this year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare cautioned people against downloading fake Cowin (COVID Intelligence Network) apps. The warning came because of a flood of fake apps that were launched on public app stores to capitalize on the restlessness of people to get themselves registered for a vaccine that protects people against the COVID-19 infection. This is not an isolated incident, and there have been countless instances of hackers trying to take advantage of specific situations. From fake contract tracing apps to fake banking apps to fake donation apps – the mobile app marketplace is an attractive target for hackers.

With smartphone usage booming, and an app available for almost every function, apps represent a huge opportunity for hackers. In the COVID-19 era, demand for mobile app development has gone through the roof, as every enterprise wants to create an app. With demand being high, and developers being asked to develop apps in the shortest possible time, security has not received the attention it should.

Most app developers have not incorporated the standard security processes, which make their mobile apps extremely vulnerable to security concerns. If security is not incorporated as part of the design for app development, apps are under threat from hackers for code theft, reverse engineering, malware insertion, information leakage, and hacking attempts at runtime.

Globally, and in India too, there have been countless examples of apps being hacked or modified, or cloned. These apps may contain malware and can impact the reputation of the original app maker. It is also common to see apps being reverse engineered and repackaged and re-posted as completely different app.

Hackers also reverse engineer apps to understand how the application works, the encryption used, and also to find out potential vulnerabilities. This leads to loss of revenue, loss of intellectual property and also erodes the hard work of developers who have spent months or years developing the app. Malicious code insertion is another serious risk. Many mobile apps do not restrict the type and number of characters that users can input in a form. This enables hackers to inject Javascript into the login form and gain access to the app.

Why real-time protection is important?

To protect apps, there is a critical need for a solution that protects apps against runtime attacks by providing insights into hidden vulnerabilities. This approach is needed because app security is dependent on multiple components related to networks, operating systems, and databases. An innovative approach called RASP (Runtime application self-protection) can help enterprises deal with runtime attacks by constantly intercepting calls to the application to check their security.

As RASP can be embedded within the application, it protects apps against unknown or zero-day threats without any human intervention. Given the varied nature of infrastructure and related components and the diversity in attacks, RASP is a must-have solution today for ensuring mobile app security. RASP can not only be used to monitor vulnerabilities but also be programmed to take actions such as terminating user sessions or analyzing traffic at runtime.

This real-time protection enabled by RASP can ensure the following.

• Proactive security and protection against zero-day or unknown attacks make them more effective than traditional solutions.
• Offers real-time protection against common attacks such as the attempt to reverse engineer or tamper code, unauthenticated data leakage, or network sniffing.
• Significant reduction in false positives as the solution is embedded within the application.
• Agnostic to the source of the attack which is extremely critical in the way security threats have evolved.
• In-built incident logging and response solution which helps in understanding the root cause of vulnerabilities.
• No impact on the performance of the app.

In summary, real-time app monitoring solutions help enterprises get a single consolidated view of actionable security intelligence to improve security posture and reduce risks. With the scale and complexity of attacks increasing day by day, a real-time app monitoring solution can be valuable in the fight against hackers!

Basatwar is Global Business Head, AppSealing and PallyCon

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