App Wrapping: What it is and why it is Important

88%. That’s the quantity of time we spend on apps. There are apps designed for literally everything under the sun. Mobile apps are anticipated to register an income of $935Bn by 2023 and there are already about 2.87 million apps on Google Play Store. A moderate smartphone user uses nearly 10 apps per day. These are not mere numbers but tell a clear story about the significance and growth of mobile apps in our lives, be it for business or private use. This also demonstrates how relevant mobile application security in recent times is. App wrapping is one method to achieve the goal of securing mobile applications as and when they are developed. But is it sufficient? Let us find out!

App Wrapping?

Through app wrapping, software administrators and developers can implement security policies in applications allowing/restricting specific actions. This allows a company’s employees with corporate-owned or personal devices to download apps without any concerns. This doesn’t affect the functionality in any way and allows protect data at the source. App wrapping helps cover the operating system so that any actions taken by users are handled as per the policies and rules. For instance, sending an SMS from an iOS device is only possible through its built-in app. App wrapping is usually launched by utilizing an SDK of the app or through an EMM (Enterprise Mobility Management) vendor. 

How App Wrapping Works

The key point of app wrapping is that it is just worried about what actions users can take. The main priority is to avoid any security loopholes or data breaches. An easy code covering specific instructions is injected in the enterprise binary, without affecting the functionality or the features of the app. It needs minor tweaks, lets users pick and choose features that must be controlled, and provides pre-existing software for commonly restricted features. 

Advantages of app wrapping

There are several benefits to app wrapping for organizations:

Unified deployment. All applications are managed from a central point. A single organization-wide policy can be set that impacts all applications. Users are not require to log into apps from further providers.

Low-code/no-code. Some app wrapping services can take off-the-shelf apps and add the wrapper without any modifications required to the underlying app. In-house designed apps can be migrated to an app wrapping platform with no modifications or only minimal ones.

Drawbacks of app wrapping

There are several disadvantages to app wrapping, however:

More resource intensive. Since app wrapping adds additional regulations and policies on top of an app, they are often somewhat small responsive and more resource-intensive than non-wrapped apps.

No first-party support. Since app wrapping creates a custom app each time, there is usually no support from first-party vendors. The apps are not available on native app stores and must be downloaded through other means.

No standard implementations. There is no app wrapping bar. Each app wrapping vendor may utilize different procedures and APIs to implement its controls. Each app may work differently and may not have a unified feature set.

Key Policies of App Wrapping

In most cases, an organization’s rules will limit a wrap application. Developers send out and use mainly three kinds of policies, which are:

Management Policies

Developers or administrators execute management policies to facilitate and streamline operations across the entire organization. These policies give a role to each user found on the application, based, of course, on the user’s title in the organization. This is in addition to restricting access to specific users. This not only gets rid of any undesirable access but also makes the app more efficient and more comfortable to operate.

Analytical Policies

Analytical policies deliver full insights that administrators and developers can access to control everything that is going on with the application. This includes details on all the users of the app, how they operate it, and why. It also provides the administrators with full command over the app’s usage time, where they can set clear times for users to access the app.

Security Policies

As the name suggests, the security policies are the details sent and applied to ensure the safety and protection of the app’s data. These policies include both managing data copy and paste and the device capabilities that we noted above. In addition, it also includes maintaining many other security aspects, like jailbreak detection, which sees the presence of the app on any jailbroken devices and denies it. A jailbroken device is one that has been illegally set to have all the operating system restrictions released. This, of course, reveals the devices, as well as the applications located on them, to many negative attacks.

Best App Wrapping Tools

AirWatch

AirWatch is another mobile application management software that delivers app-wrapping capabilities to secure your organization’s mobile apps. This tool offers a plethora of security policies to use to your wrap application. Such as disabling copy/paste functions of any data, limiting or blocking device and OS capabilities such as the camera, and allowing single sign-on. AirWatch is perfect for controlling and securing not only one wrap application but also numerous wrap applications under the same software.

Appdome

Appdome is a famous app wrapping tool that lets you to add security features to your mobile apps. This tool doesn’t need access to the app’s main code or affect other functions. With Appdome, you can add features such as encryption and data failure prevention. Appdome also shows a no-code integration platform that lets you to integrate third-party SDKs and APIs into your apps without needing any coding skills.

Microsoft Intune

Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based mobile device management solution. It permits organizations to control and secure their mobile devices and apps. With Intune, you can use app protection policies for your mobile apps, such as demanding a PIN or fingerprint to access the app, limiting data sharing, and stopping users from copying data to other apps. Intune also shows conditional access policies, which let you control access to your corporate resources based on many aspects, such as device compliance and user location.