Mobile Application Security Testing

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What Does Mobile Application Security Testing Mean?

Mobile application security testing is security testing for applications that run on mobile device platforms and operating systems.

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Security experts look at any security issues related to the use of these applications and how to design them to be more secure.

Techopedia Explains Mobile Application Security Testing

Fundamental issues in mobile application security testing involve the fact that mobile apps often modify register entries, and change the configuration of the device operating systems, while also inputting files to a device.

All of these aspects may require some forms of security testing. Professionals may use methods like application footprint analysis to figure out how installation changes a device operating system.

They may also use tools like fingerprinting, or apply hash security to check for unusual file changes. In general, some experts contend that mobile application security testing is important because mobile systems have been less extensively tested than traditional desktop or laptop systems.

Although we intuitively feel that mobile systems are generally safer, that may not be the case as cyberattackers concentrate on evolving this area of black hat operations and exploiting security loopholes in mobile systems.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.