Safe and Social Location-based Social Network Focusing on Security

Abstract

Security breaches can be potentially harmful for individuals, companies, and authorities. As a result of this, it could be beneficial for developers to know how to best secure user data in the increasing area of smartphone applications. This thesis discusses several security measures that can be taken by developers to secure sensitive data from attackers. During the investigation, an Android application was built together with a server backend. To protect data, this project uses encryption, secure connections, database protection, and protection of the source code. Best practices for persistent login and server environments were explored. The security measures investigated during this project are applicable on both Android applications and web servers. The result could be used both by companies and authorities to secure user data.