News

Firm Unveils Upload-and-Protect Cloud Security Tool for Mobile Developers

• By David Ramel
• July 9, 2019

Persistent mobile app development security issues -- in an age of unrelenting demand for more enterprise mobile apps -- can now be addressed with a cloud-based, upload-and-protect service.

Verimatrix, with offices in France and San Diego, announced the ProtectMyApp service today (July 9).

It lets developers upload a final, compiled app and get it back as a "protected" and "secure" app.

That reportedly works in a three-step process of applying integrated app shielding protection, an intelligent analytics platform that detects hacker attempts early on and provides alerts and real-time automated responses to mitigate attacks and resolve security threats that could affect apps.

The company claimed its cloud-based service addresses acute industry problems such as:

• Compromised Devices – Jailbroken/rooted devices, hooking frameworks, debuggers and emulators pose huge risks because they break down defenses that operating systems provide to the apps running on the device.
• Reverse Engineering – Attackers analyze apps to learn secrets and gain knowledge needed to launch an attack on an app.
• Repackaging – Though it does not get the headlines it deserves, malware is often delivered by repackaging a legitimate application, which involves pulling apart an original app, adding code and republishing it to look and act genuine when it is really a trojan horse for attackers.
• Rogue Access – Most apps connect to a cloud service. Since an app is considered relatively trusted by its service, it directly accesses the service, bypassing the service's firewalls and other network protection mechanisms. A compromised app can be used to bypass the service's network protections, discover vulnerabilities in the service's interface, and compromise the service.

"Facing time, budget and talent hurdles, ProtectMyApp handles the heavy lifting for developers that face the daunting threats we see every day in the press," the company said in a news release. "Now, they simply upload their application, and receive it back protected. What previously required extensive expertise, time and effort, is now efficiently offered by an intelligent automated service that optimizes protection without compromising performance or user experience."