Developers have much to fret over in the modern age—phishing scams, malware, spyware, and so much more. An IBM study concluded that a single data breach costs an average of $4.88 million. Such steep financial tolls prompt business owners to ask: How do these attacks happen?
The answer is by exploiting vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure.
Hackers learn about software weaknesses through reverse engineering. As a result, developers must understand how malicious actors reverse engineer software and source code to slip past security features, install malware, or steal valuable code.
Avoiding these attacks begins with awareness. So, below, we’ll dive into reverse engineering and explain what’s necessary to stop it.
Reverse engineering itself isn’t sinister, it merely entails taking apart a program to learn how it functions and putting it back together. However, it’s a practice that is used for an assortment of illegal and unethical activities.
Criminals can examine software, whether it’s for a mobile app, website, or API, and make an exact copy. From there, they’ll duplicate and deconstruct the program, examining it for security weaknesses and opportunities to insert code that spies on user activity and steals sensitive data. When done successfully, reverse engineering efforts allow hackers to harvest information such as passwords, credit card numbers, and medical data.
Reverse engineers also analyze code structure methods with the intent to steal them. For example, after taking apart a mobile application, they can pirate copies of that exact software and sell them for profit. It’s also possible to clone replicas of a website or app, but with malware, and use them to draw in existing users and infect their devices.
Failure to prevent reverse engineering can result in irreparable damage to reputation and damaged trust with customers, clients, and employees, which can lead to financial ruin. As such, developers must place great urgency on learning how to protect their assets from reverse engineering efforts.
As the digital world expands, so do reverse engineering techniques. However, with a thoughtful, proactive approach, it’s possible to harness modern technology and practices to reduce the likelihood of falling prey to a reverse engineering offensive.
Tamper detection tools make for a great first line of defense. They work best when applied to specific coding languages, where they automatically scan and issue alerts as soon as they sense reverse engineering attempts. Developers must learn to employ various ant tampering tools across their applications to detect reverse engineering tactics like decompilers and debuggers.
One of the largest reasons companies suffer reverse engineering attacks is because the code remains undefended. Obfuscation is taking existing code and scrambling or hiding the logic to make it difficult to interpret. With obfuscation, hackers can’t make rhyme or reason of source code, making it extremely difficult to reverse engineer.
The best obfuscator tools employ AI and machine learning to scan existing code and automate changes, like rearranging code methods and structure without changing or hindering functionality. These tasks include:
Another key part of obfuscation is code minimization, a process of removing any superfluous code that isn’t essential to functionality. This process reduces the attackable footprint, making it easier to spot malicious code injections or signs of tampering.
When hackers attempt to reverse engineer apps, they often start by stealing information at its weakest point, in transit. When data passes from device to device and flows through networks and servers, it’s easy to intercept. To prevent this, it’s crucial to employ encryption methods to guard data during its passage from one endpoint to another.
Encryption tools take data and translate it from one code into another. From there, only those with a special encryption key can use it to access data.
The first step in successful encryption is choosing a protocol, like the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), one of the most commonly used methods for maintaining data confidentiality and security. However, it’s essential to ensure your encryption techniques, algorithms, and key sizes remain current, as this keeps your security from becoming outdated and weak. It also prevents encryption tools from slowing down data uploads/downloads.
Hackers often begin reverse engineering by gaining access to existing accounts through phishing scams or brute force attacks. Once in, they can easily use authorization to access more sensitive areas of websites and apps.
To protect login hacks, developers must implement and enforce two-factor authentication (2FA) techniques for all users who operate and transact within that specific network or platform. There are many ways to establish 2FA, which is adding an additional layer of authentication on top of a password to confirm a user’s identity. Additional 2FA methods include:
The numbers don’t lie, 2FA is highly effective and proven to stop attacks. A recent study with Google revealed that after enrolling 150 million accounts in 2FA, the company saw a 50% decrease in compromised accounts.
It’s also necessary to continuously monitor and check employee and user password habits and enforce strict password creation standards, such as using at least 12 characters, at least one number, special character, and capital letter, avoiding personal information, and not using words that are commonly related.
Many small and medium-sized businesses lack robust digital security details, which can leave owners feeling defeated when trying to invest in DevSecOps.
However, there are many great tools and services readily available that can immediately analyze code and software for vulnerabilities and help secure code from reverse engineering attacks. PreEmptive offers affordable services, tools, and resources for building a future-proof online environment to successfully defend against all the most common types of digital attacks. Contact us today to request a free trial.