Mobile app developers prefer biometrics as security option

According to a recent Evans Data survey of mobile application developers, security is their top concern and biometric authentication is their primary method for providing security and privacy of applications and users.

36% of respondents selected biometrics authentication as their preferred method of security, followed by on-device hardware encryption (25%), Near Field Communication- (NFC-) based authentication (18%) and on-device software encryption (14%).

The Evans Data study also found that 39% of developers believe the application layer is most important in securing mobile applications, followed by 28% of respondents who said that securing the mobile operating system is most important. Yet the survey also showed that developers would most likely pursue data encryption as the primary method of securing data on devices.

Although the Evans Data Survey found that developers view biometrics as the preferred method of securing mobile apps, analysts at CEB, a best practice insight and technology company, challenged the efficacy of biometrics versus plain old passwords.

Security has long been a top issue for mobile development. The previous Evans Data survey, released in January 2016, showed that 56.7% of mobile developers follow security protocols mandated by their government.

This is especially true in North America, where 67% use protocols that the federal government has specified for authentication and digital signatures. Use in Asia was only slightly less, while only a third in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region follow government guidelines.