Mobile Security Testing

What Does Mobile Security Testing Mean?

Mobile security testing is the testing of mobile device systems to evaluate and improve security. The IT industry has developed standards and resources for mobile security testing as the use of these devices has become more common.

Techopedia Explains Mobile Security Testing

Although the term "mobile security testing" is a comprehensive and broad term for the testing of mobile security systems, many security experts associate it with a subcategory called mobile application security testing. Here, security is pursued by testing individual mobile applications. For example, the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) offers a specific resource to developers in order to help them figure out mobile application security issues. OWASP states on its website that "the primary focus is at the application layer" on the principle that that is where an independent developer can make the most difference.

Outside of mobile application security testing, security experts may also pursue mobile device security testing, which focuses on the use of a particular device and a proprietary operating system. Here, testing is based more on looking at the use of the device than on looking at the individual application code. This can be considered as a kind of simulation where security experts look at the use of the device from the perspective of a cyberattacker and then try to fix the problem.

Many different types of mobile security testing have emerged to protect all of the sensitive information that now gets processed through mobile devices and mobile networks, rather than through conventional personal computer workstations attached to the Internet.