How to Ensure the Security of Online Booking Apps
Often, businesses highlight security as a feature. But in reality, it’s an integral part of websites and apps. It is a shield that protects data from theft or other activities that could affect businesses as a whole.
A report by data privacy platform Osana says that businesses with poor privacy and security are 80% more vulnerable to a data breach. Talking about a real-life experience – 130 Twitter accounts were hacked, including Joe Biden and Kanye West.
We don’t know how much it has cost Twitter, but a single breach can cost your business a lifetime of trust. Hence, security should be your priority from the moment you step into development – irrespective of your industry!
Let us see why it matters for online booking apps. Also, the practices you can follow to secure your app.
Importance of a Secure Online Booking App
As we entered 2021, the news related to security threats and data breaches followed up. One that everyone must have heard of is the Facebook data leak. Do you think that Facebook – a big giant won’t have advanced security? They do follow security protocols and other guides. Still, they left the data unprotected.
If you follow the same path, you can experience the worst nightmare too. Simply put, the state of security in online business is at the forefront. Also, customers prefer businesses that ensure that their data would be safe. Every business is vulnerable to hacking. But we can consistently implement the best hacks to prevent it.
Here’s how to do that.
1. Encrypt the Data
Every time you ask a customer to fill a form or enter their payment details to confirm a booking, encrypt the data they enter. If you don’t, the data might be at risk. Someone can use it for malicious purposes. And it’s a must for credit cards, passwords, and other sensible information.
For this, consider purchasing an SSL certificate. It ensures a secure connection between the customers and the businesses. All the data is encrypted, protecting all the credit card and customer details.
2. Use Strong Passwords
Ask your online booking app development team to include a code that makes it essential for customers to create passwords consisting of upper and lower case letters, special characters, a minimum of 6 letters, and so.
Make them follow the standard practice. It may sound daunting, but it’s for their and your business’ safety. However, that alone won’t be enough. They must keep updating the password now and then. That can bring up a question – how to remember all the passwords?
So, provide a password manager where they can save all the passwords. They will only have to remember the first password. They can access others directly using the password safe.
3. Use High-Level Authentication
High-level authentication means strong passwords and steps before logging in. We already learned about the passwords above – the kind of password format you should use, and so.
In addition to passwords, provide two-factor authentication. It can be an OTP sent on the registered email or phone number. Or simply a tap on the registered phone. A security question can also be a way to authenticate the user.
In the case of over-sensitive data, you can use retina and biometric scans as an authentication metric, just like the ones used in class scheduling software.
4. Ensure Role-based Access
Having role-based access not only simplifies the task but also protects data. When more than one person is accessing the data, the risk of misusing the data or manipulation is high. Therefore, role-based access provides every user with defined rights. They can only access the modules that they have rights for. For instance, a manager who doesn’t have the right to make payment transactions or edit the invoices won’t be able to do the same. If they are allowed to view the invoices, they should only have view rights.
Providing roles would relieve you from the risk of financial losses.
5. Test Frequently
Testing the security of a mobile app is like servicing a bike. You service your bike from time to time for better maintenance and minimize the risk of accidents/breakdown.
Similarly, you need to test your online booking app regularly. With technology advancement comes new threats and new solutions. Thus, you need to update your app to tackle these threats.
Invest in testing, threat modeling, and emulators. Also, ask your online booking app, development team. They would test the updates before releasing it. Whenever you face any issue, or come across a loophole, inform the development team. Ask them to fix it with a new release and issue patches.
Final Words
While proceeding with online booking app development, try to implement all the security tips mentioned above. It’ll help you protect your business from customers and financial loss.
We know that online security is not something we can avoid totally. But as they say, “Prevention is better than cure.”, we can always prevent it. We can protect our data and our business.
Summary
Data encryption, strong passwords, two-factor authentication, role-based access, secure coding are a few ways to secure your business from online threats and breaches.
Author Bio
Maulik Shah is the CEO of Biztech, Online Booking App Development from India. Maulik likes to explore beyond his comfort zone. When it comes to writing for the blog, his contribution is priceless. No one else on the team can bring the deep industry knowledge to articles that he has. However, his door is always open and he is generous with sharing that knowledge.
