- Experts share view on the benefits of app security to mobile economy
About eighty per cent (80%) fintech apps in Nigeria have been found to be lacking sufficient Code Obfuscation.
Programming code is often obfuscated to protect intellectual property or trade secrets.
This is contained in a report by security experts who also highlighted the benefits of having various layers of security on mobile technologies, applications and services, in the world economies being referred to as mobile economy.
The security professionals in the technology and banking ecosystem, recently gathered at a round-table event organized by CED Technologies and Appknox with the theme, ‘How to think security first in a super-fast mobile economy – Act or React’.
They unanimously agreed that security first in a super-fast mobile economy should be at the forefront of all activities and decision-making processes within the rapidly evolving mobile technology and economy.
According to Chukwuebuka Ume-Ezeoke, Chief Technology Officer at CED Technologies, while people are creating mobile technology solutions that help and better everyone’s life in and out of Africa, there is a need to think security first.
“While companies like Appknox and CED Technologies have built a safe and secured mobile ecosystem using a system plus human approach to outsmart hackers, we believe that it is everyone’s business to think security first, recheck and double check so that businesses can be as secure as possible,” he told Journalists on the sideline.
Asked what the essence of the roundtable is, he explained that it is basically to bring security leaders, bank executives, chief information security officers, heads of risk management, and even founders for different FinTech apps to encourage everyone to think security first while creating solutions that help and better everyone’s life in and out of Africa.
Meanwhile, earlier in his presentation, Mr. Chukwuebuka noted that the importance of API Security for organizations is to prevent Data Breaches by ensuring that only authorized users and applications can access the data, and that data is encrypted during transmission.
Others include protecting sensitive Data, stressing that if APIs are not secured, cybercriminals can intercept and steal sensitive information, resulting in significant financial and reputational damage to the organization.
“API security ensures that the organisation a compliant with regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, by protecting sensitive data and providing secure access to APIs,” he added.
Also speaking, Harrison Nnaji, the Chief Information Security Officer of FirstBank and its subsidiaries, stated the key benefits of mobile app security include data protection, user trust and confidence, compliance and legal protection and then, enhanced reputation and competitive advantage.
This is even as he identified mobile malware/ransomware, supply chain risks, evolving threat landscape, social engineering, data breaches, poorly designed apps, unpatched software and inadequate user education as the major security concerns in the super-fast mobile economy, where one billion mobile connection and 80 percent mobile broadband adoption is recorded in Africa as at 2023.
“Security trends in mobile security revolve around 5G security, AI-powered security, zero trust architecture, Quantum-Resistant Encryption, Biometric Enhancements, Blockchain for mobile security, mobile threat defense and privacy-preserving Technologies,” he added.
Meanwhile, Harshit Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer/Co-Founder of Appknox has said that based on the analysis carried out by Appknox, 40 percent of the Fintech apps in Nigeria are vulnerable to high and critical impact issues.
A breakdown of the analysis shows that over 80 percent of the apps lack sufficient code obfuscation, 60 percent have broken/disabled SSL and certificate pinning, 35 percent are affected by network security misconfiguration and 25 percent indicate recording of audio and screen activity.
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