CompTIA Mobile App Security+: what you need to know about the new ADR-001 and IOS-001 exams

As we mentioned the other day, CompTIA recently introduced two interesting certifications. So, if you are working towards the career of mobile apps developer or a cloud professional, consider that you have gotten another goal to strive to.

Today, we’re talking about the vendor’s Mobile App Security+ Certification. With this addition, CompTIA raises an important issue, so often ignored: the security of mobile apps. As we all know (or at least have a gut feeling about), unless we’re talking big players’ ecommerce apps, healthcare and finance, the apps we play around with on our smartphones, aren’t too secure, right?

With smartphones being so vulnerable to hacking, theft or loss, CompTIA insists that it’s the developer’s responsibility to secure the application. And the only sure way to do that lies in planning for security and building security features from the very first stages of the app development process. The challenges of mobile app security can be overcome with the latest technology, such as HTML5, CSS3, JQuery, JQuery Mobile.

So, as CompTIA is fighting to step up security standards of mobile app development, we can expect their certification to become the big thing employers will be looking for in the resumes of their potential developers. So, you should prepare for it. And, as usual, there is no better time than now.

CompTIA Mobile App Security+ has two editions of the exam – for Android and iOS mobile apps (exams ADR-001 and IOS-001 respectively). The exams include 100 multiple choice questions. There is no confirmed information as to whether there are going to be exams for other platforms (Windows Phone mainly, given its steady growth this year), so if Windows is your platform of choice, Microsoft is still your go-to certification destination.

The exams (ADR-001 and IOS-001) will certify that the candidate has the knowledge and skills required to create a secure native Android/iOS mobile application, including securing network communications, backend Web services, etc. Both exams are suited for professionals with at least 2 years of mobile app development experience. Candidates need to be familiar with the principles of secure application development, iOS/Android SDK, and Java(for Android developers).

According to CompTIA, Mobile App Security+ Certification Exam (iOS Edition) IOS-001 covers the following domains:

1. Application Security and SDLC Fundamentals
2. Objective-C Coding
3. iOS SDK, APIs, and Security Features
4. Web Service and Network Security
5. Data Security and Implementing Encryption
6. Application Hardening

To pass, you should have the knowledge and skills to:

• Describe fundamental principles of application security
• Describe the security model of iOS devices
• Describe common threats to mobile application security
• Develop moderately complex applications using the iOS SDK
• Describe Web services security model and vulnerabilities
• Properly implement SSL/TLS for Web communications
• Utilize the security features of the iOS operating system and APIs
• Properly implement secure coding techniques
• Avoid insecure retention of data in memory
• Describe common implementations of cryptography such as PKI
• Leverage encryption for storage and/or communications
• Harden an application against attack to levels appropriate for the risk model of the
• Application

CompTIA Mobile AppSecurity+ Certification Exam (Android Edition) ADR-001 covers the following domains:

1. Mobile application security, SDLC, and threat models
2. Android SDK, APIs, and security features
3. Web service and network security
4. Data security and implementing encryption
5. Application hardening and reverse engineering 5%
6. Secure Java coding

The successful candidate should have the knowledge and skills to:

• Describe fundamental principles of application security
• Describe the security model of Android devices
• Describe common threats to mobile application security
• Develop moderately complex applications using the Android SDK
• Describe Web services security model and vulnerabilities
• Properly implement SSL/TLS for Web communications
• Utilize the security features of the Android operating system and APIs
• Properly implement secure coding techniques
• Avoid insecure retention of data in memory
• Describe common implementations of cryptography such as PKI
• Leverage encryption for storage and/or communications
• Understand access control and file permissions
• Harden an application against attack to levels appropriate for the risk model of the application

For more information and detailed exam objectives, please refer to CompTIA’s official website.

• Category: comptia
• Tags: certification, comptia, comptia mobile app security, exam, exams, it certification, it certification exam, it certification exams, it certifications, mobile, mobile app development, security