DEVOPSdigest

Mobile apps are everywhere. They handle payments, authentication, messaging, and health data — often all in the same session. But most organizations still approach mobile security like it's an extension of the web. It's not.

Attacks on mobile apps jumped 80% last year. Mobile apps still ship with known vulnerabilities. And the reality is, attackers have figured out what most teams haven't: Mobile is often the weakest link in the stack.

What makes mobile security different isn't only the technology but the environment it lives in.

Why Mobile Plays by Different Rules

Start with the obvious: fragmentation. Web apps run in browsers. Mobile apps run across thousands of Android builds, OS versions, and hardware configurations. No consistent baseline. No guaranteed behavior.

Mobile apps don't just access a database or hit an API, they reach into location data, sensors, cameras, local files, and even background activity. They're more deeply integrated with the user's life and device than any web app ever will be.

And then there's the SDK problem. Most apps rely on a long list of third-party SDKs — analytics, payments, push notifications, and ads. If one of them introduces a vulnerability, the app inherits it.

The distribution looks different, too. On the web, you control deployment. On mobile, you're publishing to an app store. The binaries can be downloaded, decompiled, and modified. That's not a theoretical risk. It happens every day.

Why Traditional DevSecOps Doesn't Work

Most pipelines were designed for web and backend services. They're not built to handle the risks mobile introduces.

Take reverse engineering. Most teams don't account for it. Yet it's one of the most common attacks — modifying APKs to bypass payments or inject malicious code. It usually works because the app relies on local checks, stores sensitive logic on the device, and skips basic protections like code obfuscation.

Static analysis tools help, but they miss what only shows up on real devices: insecure storage, data leakage, and runtime hooks. Testing only on emulators isn't enough.

API protection is another area where mobile diverges. Mobile apps cache, retry, and handle sessions differently. The API behavior from a mobile app often doesn't resemble a browser at all. If you're only looking at it through a web lens, you're missing real threats.

And if a security tool slows things down, developers will either ignore it or work around it. That's just the reality of high-velocity teams.

What Needs to Change

Mobile apps need a dedicated security track. Treating them like a branch of your web stack leads to blind spots. Instead, here's what I recommend putting in place:

■ Run tests on real devices. Emulators miss risks associated with real-time user activity. Include older OS versions and rooted environments in your test suite.

■ Review SDKs like you would in-house code. Test them before use and monitor them in production. Most vulnerabilities now come through dependencies.

■ Build mobile-specific threat models. Include things like background activity, permission misuse, tracker permissions, and data storage.

■ Obfuscate and harden your app by default. Reverse engineering is a standard practice for attackers.

■ Automate security in CI/CD. But keep it focused. No noise, no false alarms. Developers don't tolerate anything that slows go-to-market.

■ Encrypt everything.

Logs, local storage, and cached data. Assume the device will be compromised.

These are table stakes. Anything less is negligent.

Making DevSecOps Work for Mobile

Most security programs are built around infrastructure and backend services. But mobile is a client-side problem running on someone else's hardware, with your code exposed.

So, the strategy has to shift.

■ Start by building threat models that reflect mobile's real-world attack surface. Don't reuse your backend template. Mobile introduces its own risks, and they show up early in the design phase.

■ Test your apps the same way attackers do. On real devices. In messy environments. On old OS versions. That's where the bugs live.

■ Treat SDKs like untrusted code, even if they're popular. Review their behavior, monitor their updates, and don't assume they're secure just because they're widely used.

■ Encrypt everything that can be accessed on the device. Don't log sensitive data. Don't hardcode secrets. And don't leave the app defenseless against tampering or modification.

■ Automate wherever possible. But automation only works if it's trusted. That means reducing false positives and integrating into workflows that developers already follow.

Mobile security is broken because the tools and mindsets haven't kept up with how mobile apps are built, shipped, and used.

Secure mobile starts with a mindset shift. If you're leading DevSecOps, advocate for a mobile-first lens. The sooner that shift happens, the sooner mobile becomes manageable. Not bulletproof, but manageable. And that's a big step forward.