Kolochenko revealed that mobile app per se usually contains various weaknesses that often require some social engineering or additional exploitation conditions such as an attacker’s presence in the same wi-fi network or a malicious app already installed on a victim’s device.

“This is a very risky practice: in our experience, as the majority of exploitable high-risk vulnerabilities are located in the backend (e.g. web services or APIs that the mobile app use),” he said.

Mobile infrastructure

According to him, the most complicated component of a mobile infrastructure is the backend where mobile app sends and receives data. If it’s a gaming app, usually not much is at stake.

However, he added that, if the mobile app stores or processes any sensitive or confidential information on the backend (e.g. payment apps), one backend vulnerability can lead to a breach of all app users and their data.

The backend is also a pretty difficult target for testing: developers often omit documentation, and in order to undertake rigorous testing, you have to interact with the application and intercept outgoing and incoming traffic.

Backend communications

Kolochenko continued: “Proper encryption of mobile app and backend communications is also very important and actually not very complicated to implement. If an app sends any sensitive data via unencrypted HTTP protocol it can easily be intercepted by anyone in the same wireless network.

“Sometimes attackers breach wireless routers to log all traffic and automatically grep for passwords sent over the network in plaintext. In this case, attackers don’t have to join the network and can operate from another continent.”

He also noted that one backend business logic flaw can create a lot of trouble, as they require a thorough understanding of the underlying business processes. For example, if a client is entitled to three free refunds per item in the case of a purchase under US$100, this is something that will unlikely be spotted during a classic assessment and will require additional time and cooperation with the customer to be detected.

Written by Leah Alger

The post High-Tech Bridge CEO explains the importance of mobile backend security testing appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

The appetite to invest in wireless technology is reaching levels of 90% according to recent research, and globally, businesses do agree on the top reasons for why they are investing in technology.

However, the importance of investing varies when viewed from the perspective of senior-level executives compared with those on the frontline of an organisation.

This digital transformation has resulted in businesses becoming far more reliant on technology to manage the day to day operations and for efficient decision making. To be successful in this environment, organisations must evolve to be smarter, stronger and faster than they are today, enabled by changes across three dimensions: organisation and talent; business and customer; and process and technology.

Those leading the change will have a distinct advantage over their competitors — a performance gap that will continue to grow as emerging technologies and digital channels offer further insight using data from both within and outside the enterprise.

Organisation and talent

The business environment continues to demand richer communication and collaboration for employees who are increasingly mobile or distributed. Organisations are increasingly deploying devices for employee use, with recent research from SOTI revealing that 76% of employees agree the business they work for has invested in mobile technology to better their working experience and improve the ways in which they do their job.

Mobility and flexibility are transforming the way businesses and industries harness the collective insight of their workforce, utilising mobile technologies to increase the efficiency of business processes, improve decision making and deliver accurate information in real time. 86% of senior management employees agree that the company they work for is investing in mobile technology to stand out from the competition.

However, only 55% of those at entry level agree, so as the evidence shows, the investment strategy is not filtering through from the top to the frontline. If a business invests well even in basic technology, it can instantly boost staff motivation and productivity as well as appeal to prospective customers.

Employees expect an easy, quick and efficient experience whenever they use a device, whether onsite or remotely. For most businesses, the workforce is its largest investment. From motivating and developing talent to creating an engaged workforce, the effectiveness of employee management has a direct impact on business results and competitiveness.

Business and customer

In any industry, technology is a key component to understand and meet market needs and customer expectations.  In fact, 66% of employees agree the business they work for is investing in devices and apps to better understand what its customers and clients are doing.

A new dynamic exists in which customers now expect service providers to have a deeper level of knowledge of their needs and future needs. This means the quality of the customer experience is of the utmost importance. Customers are demanding a connected and streamlined experience, and now more than ever, organisations need digital intelligence to properly understand their customers with the agility to respond to changing needs and market dynamics at pace.

Technology investment is critical no matter the size of an enterprise, because of its central role in today’s business world. However, research is indicating that smaller businesses may be falling short. Only 58% of employees in smaller businesses (50-249) believes that their company is investing in the technology to better understand customers compared with 73% of larger businesses (500-999).

It seems that as quickly as new technologies come to market (making it easier for businesses to provide customer service) the number of channels through which businesses interact with customers and the complexity and cost of those interactions is increasing.

That’s why it’s so important to recognise how investing in a mobile strategy can help to anticipate customer needs, tailor business processes to best serve customers, and ultimately improve the efficiency of a business.

Process and technology

The role of IT has evolved from being a historical provider of technology to challenging processes and leading the digital changes across organisations on a global scale. Reflecting this, 69% of employees believe their company is investing in mobile devices to differentiate themselves from the competition.

The market has shifted, and businesses are now embracing mobility as a game-changer, lowering the overall cost of IT investment by reducing device costs, making business operations more efficient and making employees more productive –  key elements in growing revenue and increasing profitability.

Leveraging a mobile strategy has many distinct advantages including a higher level of employee responsiveness and engagement.

Today, digital transformation is infiltrating every aspect of an organisation and as a result, technology demands across departments have skyrocketed. It is now critical for senior executives to effectively manage those out in the field.

Therefore, a comprehensive strategy is needed to empower the workforce, equipping them with the tools to work remotely and completely changing the way that certain departments communicate and operate. This allows the company to transform the business, unleashing endless possibilities as a result and helps to reach critical growth for their business.

With the gauntlet laid down for businesses to facilitate more mobile working and to make the process as effective as possible, it’s clear that companies that choose not to embrace mobility as part of their strategy could find themselves playing catch-up.

Written by Richard Smith, regional manager, SOTI

The post Is it time to take a different view on technology investment strategy? appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Zurich announced that it is expanding its use of Medallia Experience Cloud across its UK business to assess customer feedback.

Tulsi Naidu, CEO at Zurich UK, said to Insurance Business: “We are delighted to be working with Medallia and using their customer data analysis tools across our UK business for the first time.

“This is an exciting development for us which will help us better understand the customer experience and shape our strategy to ensure we continue to deliver a first-class service to all our customers.”

Borge Hald, CEO and co-founder at Medallia, added: “We work closely with our clients to help them anticipate customer needs and adapt their organisations to meet them.

“By using Medallia Experience Cloud across the company, Zurich can engage everyone in the company with the customer feedback that is relevant to their job.”

Zurich will also be using Medallia mobile app to track real-time comments from customers.

Written by Leah Alger

The post Zurich turns to Medallia to ‘boost’ customer experience appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

The provider of application development and deployment technologies enables healthcare organisations to deliver patient and connected care applications through tools which build engaging experiences across interfaces.

The programme fully integrates its platform through frontend, backend, and data connectivity technologies into its serverless and HIPAA-compliant platform.

‘Healthcare outcomes are top priority’

Healthcare organisations are now in a position to deliver unified digital health experiences in the form of mobile, wearable, chatbot, web and tablet applications via Progress Health Cloud.

Yogesh Gupta, CEO at Progress, said to KM World: “Patient experience and healthcare outcomes are the top priorities for healthcare organisations today.”

Progress Health Cloud also includes digital experience accelerators, cloud service accelerators, health and service catalog, and HIPAA compliance.

Written by Leah Alger

The post Progress launches digital health experiences appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Setting a Mobile-First Strategy

Back in 2014, Gartner predicted that by 2017, there would be 268 billion mobile downloads generating a revenue of $77 billion. Sure enough, mobile usage has overtaken desktop, with nearly 2 million apps in the Apple store and 200,000 more on Google Play. It’s clear that businesses need a mobile-first strategy, where the priority shifts from desktop web design to mobile apps – and getting them to market ahead of the competition.

This opens the Native v Hybrid debate, which can lead to differing opinions between IT and the business. So let’s take a look at the benefits and challenges of each and then examine how you can bridge the gap to create 5-star apps that users genuinely love.

Native or Hybrid Apps?

Native applications developed specifically for iOS, Android or Windows, can certainly take up more time and resources than creating hybrid apps, where code is wrapped inside a thin native container. But native apps look and perform the best. They also win hands down at security and user experience.

However, if your biggest concern is cost-effectiveness and a fast time to market, you may be leaning towards hybrid. While users won’t know the difference between a native and a hybrid app, code wise, they will certainly see and feel the difference

Bearing in mind that 60% of users will abandon your app if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds, businesses can’t afford to compromise on user experience just to get to market ahead of their competitors.

Native apps have a wealth of benefits including:

• Code that runs faster and offers better performance
• Easy integration with the device’s functionalities like camera and microphone
• Fast and simple addition of new features
• Enablement of push-notifications to promote buy-in and engagement
• Access to Android and iOS tools to solve coding issues

The ideal scenario is the best of both worlds – a cost-effective, cross-platform, high-performance native app delivered to market quickly. To this end, Microsoft’s Xamarin platform is an excellent tool that allows developers to write 100% native apps and reuse a huge percentage of code across different platforms through a single programming language: C#. It enables a single mobile team to be more productive than siloed teams building multiple apps on different technology stacks.

Testing for the Best User Experience

Xamarin Test Cloud provide an automatable way to do UI Acceptance Testing of mobile applications across thousands of different devices in the cloud, which means you can be certain that you are delivering a high quality experience on all the latest platforms and operating systems.

You can also interact with your app as your users do, performing taps; double taps; swipes; rotations; long presses and pinches. And you can build custom gestures for advanced user interaction.

It provides:

• Complete test coverage
• Comprehensive testing on thousands of different devices and operating systems
• Automation to accelerate your journey to continuous integration
• Total support for all native and hybrid apps built in C#, Objective-C, Swift, Java, React Native and Apache Cordova.

Want 5-Star Apps?

A 2016 “Total Economic Impact commissioned study of Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin conducted by Forrester Consulting[4] provides some interesting figures of the potential ROI over three year period, for an organisation building multiple apps with Xamarin:

• Reduction in development costs of £1,000,000
• Maintenance and upgrade efficiency gains of £640,000
• Cost avoidance of £5,050,000 by mitigating the need for platform-specific talent

If you’re just beginning your mobile app journey, Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin and Xamarin Test Cloud provide an excellent foundation for embedding quality and usability into your apps, while more mature organisations will reap the benefits of significant cost savings and an impressive ROI.

If you would like to learn more about Xamarin and how going native will enable you to build quality into your apps from the outset, then join Sogeti’s webinar Build High Performing, High Quality Apps – with Xamarin on 6 September at 11-11.30 BST. Register here: https://www.uk.sogeti.com/xamarin-webinar

The post Go Native: create high performing 5-star apps appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Perfecto, a cloud based platform for web, mobile and IoT software testing revealed in a recent report ‘The Path to Releasing Confidently in DevOps,’ key practices that boost mobile app teams and enterprise web.

In a bid to attain efficient high velocity software development, the report found the average developer spends less than 5-10% of their time writing code; high performance teams release software to production 2-3 times per week; while low performers tend to release in large batches closer to once per quarter and high performance teams are 2 times more likely to receive early user interface (UI) feedback than mid-performance and low-performance teams.

Perfecto also announced that developers who deliver value to production users also tend to embed quality into all software stages at the delivery lifecycle, as high velocity software delivery is delivering frequently requires confidence in app quality.
“We’ve found that the average developer spends less than 50% of their time writing code,” said Carlo Cadet, Director of Product Marketing at Perfecto.

“What is perhaps most surprising is that high performance dev teams do not spend any more or less time coding than their peers. Instead, high performance teams spend 5 to 10% less time on overhead tasks like admin and waste and 5% more time writing tests. This greater focus on quality helps deliver value more successfully. Embedding quality into all stages of the software delivery lifecycle is a difference maker.”

The report consists of 478 respondents from development professionals, which was created from 6 February 2017 to 20 March 2017.

Written from press release by Leah Alger

The post Perfecto reveals trends in recent DevOps report appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

In order to support a seamless user experience for individuals, SMEs and corporates, Raiffeisen Bank, a member of Austrian Raiffeisen Group is working with Backbase to help develop its next generation digital banking architecture.

Sleek mobile app

A sleek mobile app for private individuals will be the first deliverable, closely followed by the web applications for both retail and corporate customers. The bank wants to enhance the customer experience and deliver faster new innovative functionalities and features for its customers on digital channels. The new platform will significantly increase agility and enable the bank to launch new features to market more rapidly.

“It was important for Raiffeisen Bank to upgrade its online systems in order to provide a seamless user experience for all of their clients, whether they be private individuals or corporates” said Jouk Pleiter, CEO of Backbase.

Agile and flexible digital platform

Raiffeisen Bank needed a partner that could take its banking platform to the next level by developing added functionalities and transforming it to become agile and flexible.

Edited from press release by Ella Donaldson

The post Digital omnichannel platform enhances Romanian bank’s customer experience appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Cox visited the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Accra, Ghana to meet with Ghanaian entrepreneurs and see how they are working to build sustainable technology businesses. Later, he witnessed the force of Ghana’s creative talent in an event at ANO Gallery.

“With Facebook and its family of apps, we aim to give people around the world the ability to connect with each other, grow their businesses and tell their own stories,” Cox said. “I am excited to see how Ghana’s entrepreneurs are using mobile, video and other technologies to build products and services that empower the community and that address local needs or solve local problems in innovative ways”

Software development training for top graduates

The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology and the MEST Incubator program provide training, investment and mentoring for aspiring technology entrepreneurs with the goal of creating globally successful companies that create wealth and jobs locally in Africa. Each year top graduates from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa are selected to receive comprehensive training across the spectrum of skills required to build successful tech businesses, including computer programming, software development and product management.

Jorn Lyseggen, CEO of Meltwater and Founder of MEST, commented: “We’re excited to host Facebook at MEST and to share how we can work together to drive innovation in Africa. Mobile technology is giving people in Africa new opportunities to become entrepreneurs and content creators – and we were proud to show the Facebook team how young companies and entrepreneurs on our programme are making a difference.”

Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer Facebook; Ime Archibong, Director Strategic Partnerships Facebook; Emeka Afigbo; Jorn Lyseggen, CEO of Meltwater and Founder of MEST and Kate Sarro, Managing Director of Meltwater.

Supporting Nigeria’s small business owners to leverage digital platforms for growth

Cox also spoke about the future of media at Social Media Week in Lagos, where he highlighted Nigeria’s status as a hub for innovation and creativity because of its fast-growing mobile technology sector and its vibrant film and music industries.

Chris Cox is the most senior Facebook executive to visit Nigeria since Mark Zuckerberg visited Lagos in September 2016.

“I’m looking forward to hearing more about how Nigerian creatives, developers and entrepreneurs are using mobile technology, video and Facebook platforms to create inspiring applications and services for their customers and communities,” says Cox. “The level of innovation we see in this market is amazing. As Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria is an important market for us.”

Starting on 8 March, Facebook will kick off Boost Your Business, a series of free training sessions designed to help thousands of Nigerian small business owners understand how to leverage digital platforms for growth. The sessions will be facilitated by trainers led by She Leads Africa in key cities including Lagos, Kaduna, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Ibadan.

Edited from press release by Cecilia Rehn.

The post Facebook’s Chief Product Officer visits Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal to learn from its tech sector appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Fuelled in part by shifts in customer demand and in part by rapidly changing technology, some software application vendors are poised to reap windfall profits from the new software pricing and licensing models emerging, while others risk being left behind.

This is the conclusion of a new report published by Flexera Software.

Key report findings

Among the report’s findings:

Perpetual decline

Only 43% of software vendors say perpetual software licenses contribute to half or more of their revenues. Historically, the perpetual license was the dominant licensing model used by most software vendors.

Shifting foundations

70% of software vendors will change their pricing and licensing models within the next two years. The reasons? To generate more revenues, be more competitive and improve customer relations.

No installation required

36% of software vendors say that less than half of their applications are delivered as traditional installed software.

Change ready

Within the next two years software vendors plan on changing their licensing policies to accommodate new technologies like:

• Cloud (49%).
• SaaS (46%).
• Virtualisation (47%).
• Mobile platforms (55%).

Bliss or ignorance?

73% of vendors boast their pricing and licensing policies are effective. Yet despite this confidence, 51% of those surveyed admitted they don’t track customer usage, 45% don’t audit customer usage, 55% don’t have technology in place to track customer usage of their products, and 42% say their customers have challenges determining which software products they’re entitled to use.

Proactive enterprise software vendors

“Enterprises are rapidly redefining how they want to license and pay for business software. Moreover, technology is shifting so rapidly it is rendering old pricing and licensing models obsolete,” said R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst & Founder at Constellation Research. “Smart software producers are being proactive, viewing this dramatic shift as an opportunity to offer more flexible monetisation models, capture market share and new revenue streams. Software vendors that fail to act risk being left behind.”

“The report illustrates the fluidity of the software market place and the rapidly changing customer preferences dictating how software is bought and sold,” said Steve Schmidt, Vice President of Corporate Development at Flexera Software. “To thrive in this environment software vendors must adopt an agile Software Monetisation strategy and implement automation that flexibly supports multiple software pricing and licensing models. As the data suggests, many vendors are not yet ‘change-ready,’ and therefore are at risk.”

Edited from press release by Cecilia Rehn.

The post Enterprise software market software pricing and licensing trends appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Digital technology straddles across industries, permeates our existence, and affords us inconceivable possibilities with profound implications – from 24×7 connectivity, to latency-free, real-time collaboration and online transactions. Thanks to the internet of things, entities in the real and virtual worlds are now interconnected seamlessly, and the boundaries between them are ever more blurred. For businesses, this eradication of latency, coupled with instant digital commerce and internet of things, removes inefficiencies, but also introduces risks. There is minimal margin for error, rendering the cost of failure exponentially high, and resulting in frenetic churn-rate for overnight brands.

The digital mode of delivery has levelled the global playing field – a clear example being the rapid penetration of cellular networks, in both developed and developing markets. This profusion of mobile devices is part of a broader trend of technology becoming cheaper and more widespread. With everything online, batch and offline processes have become redundant. Today, there are five digital forces driving social and business change, and promising a more open and democratic society.

The five digital forces driving social and business change

Mobile and Pervasive Computing

The first is Mobile and Pervasive Computing. These small devices liberate us from the desktop and allow us to remain connected and transact wherever we are on the planet, whether socially or with the market. With everything online, batch and offline processes have become redundant. Providing assurance for this new world is challenging, because there is no tolerance for failure. The need – continuous assurance for mobile and handheld environments.

The Cloud

This leads to the second of the five forces – the Cloud, which provides access to scalable storage and processing anywhere on the planet, subject to jurisdictional differences relating to data-privacy. Distributed computing has shaken up data centres and shifted the business model for software and hardware services to that of a utility, like water or electricity. I discussed in my article ‘The Digital Default’ in TEST Magazine February 2015 issue, that providing assurance for the Cloud means tackling the challenges of reliability, availability, security and integrity, to ensure that transactions over a large distributed network are not dissipated, corrupted or diluted. The Cloud presents a clear need for continuous testing of virtualised environments and data security.

Big Data and Analytics

The third Force is Big Data and Analytics – the volume and variety of data generated every minute, thanks to connected devices and social media – driving insightful analysis and differentiation for competitive advantage. Assurance, in this context, means sustaining brand reputation and therefore customer loyalty. Enter data validation and verification for big data assurance.

Artificial intelligence and robotics

Artificial intelligence and robotics is the fourth of the five forces. Self-learning systems and robotics can deliver a highly efficient and automated transactional capability. When human activity is replaced with algorithms or robotic processes, the onus of preventing malfunction is on the assurance-provider. Managing this risk requires calibrating the correct balance between the probability of an error, and the negative impact of the error. Enter assurance in the assembly line.

Social Media

The fifth force is Social Media, which is used by many companies for advertising campaigns. The power of social media to demolish barriers to participating in public conversations is one that cannot be undermined. Assuring the success of social media campaigns necessitates a return-on-investment (ROI) calculation and the end-to-end assurance of ROI. Setting the metrics for the campaign, collecting feedback from customers, and building correlations from that data against sales, while accounting for exogenous factors, is key to measuring the success of social media advertising. Assurance for social media advertising calls effective keyword research and contextual analysis, persuasive landing page content and intuitive web design – a clear case for usability and human factors – both, applied areas of assurance.

Implications for data privacy

These digital forces have profound implications for data privacy. Demarcating the line between private and public data is critical to ensuring client confidentiality and data security. Part of the solution for mitigating data security and confidentiality risks, lies in self-regulation by companies. Specifically for IT firms, protection of customer information should be top priority. Complete confidentiality has become the de-facto customer expectation – second nature to the IT industry and the information economy. The applied area of information assurance has gained importance. So long as the need for privacy and confidentiality is respected, the digital revolution promises a more open, more democratic society. Digital has become the new default mode of delivery.

As these forces merge, they present challenges such as physical safety, information security, and multiple failure points. But assurance too, with its applied areas, is rapidly evolving to manage the speed and volume of these digital forces.

An earlier version of this blog was published at #ThinkAssurance, the quality assurance (QA) and testing blog of Tata Consultancy Services.

The post Success by design, not by chance appeared first on DevOps Online North America.