Your banking app knows your face. It reads your fingerprint. It trusts that the person holding the phone is really you. But what if it’s wrong? Mobile-first banking has made financial services more accessible than ever. You can transfer money, pay bills, and apply for loans all from your phone, all in seconds. But this convenience has also created a growing attack surface that bad actors are actively exploiting. And right now, biometric fraud is one of the fastest-growing threats in the space.

The Problem: Biometric Fraud Is Surging in Mobile Banking

Let’s talk numbers for a moment. According to Veriff’s Future of Finance report, fraudulent activity within financial services increased by 21% between 2024 and 2025. That’s not a minor uptick, that’s a systemic shift in how criminals are targeting users. BioCatch’s research found a 61% surge in mobile fraud incidents, reflecting just how much of the attack surface has migrated to the phone.

And it’s not just volume. The sophistication is rising too. Fraudsters are using deepfakes, biometric spoofing, and AI-generated synthetic identities to slip past the very systems designed to stop them. iProov’s Threat Intelligence Report 2025 recorded a staggering 2,665% surge in virtual camera attacks and a 300% increase in face swap attempts year-over-year. Biometric spoofing techniques have contributed to 18% more successful fraud attempts compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, nearly 83% of global financial institutions are already using or exploring biometric verification, which means the stakes for getting it right have never been higher. If the app itself has security gaps, all that biometric trust is built on a shaky foundation. This is exactly why mobile app security testing is a baseline requirement.

The Hidden Vulnerabilities Inside Your Mobile App

Here’s something that might surprise you: a lot of mobile banking breaches don’t happen because of clever hacking. They happen because of sloppy code.

Hardcoded API keys sitting inside an APK file. Sensitive tokens stored in plain text. Weak encryption on local data. Debug flags left on in production builds. These aren’t exotic zero-day exploits. They’re avoidable mistakes that show up in apps more often than anyone would like to admit.

According to research, 40% of data breaches have been linked to mobile app vulnerabilities. And with smartphone users now exceeding 6.8 billion globally, the scale of exposure is enormous. The challenge is that traditional security testing is slow, manual, and tends to happen too late in the development cycle, usually right before a release, when fixing issues is most expensive and disruptive. By the time a vulnerability is found, it may already be in production.

AutoSecT Mobile: Security Testing That Keeps Up With Development

AutoSecT, built by Kratikal, is an AI-driven mobile app security testing platform that automates the process of finding vulnerabilities in both Android and iOS applications. Instead of waiting for a quarterly pentest, teams can run scans continuously, catching issues early, when they’re fastest and cheapest to fix.

Here’s what makes it different.

Deep APK/IPA Structure Analysis

When you upload your APK or IPA file to AutoSecT, it doesn’t just skim the surface. The platform decompiles and analyzes the entire app structure, code, configurations, third-party libraries, data storage patterns, and network calls.

This is where hardcoded secrets get exposed. It’s common for developers to accidentally leave API keys, authentication tokens, or database credentials embedded in the app binary. To an attacker who decompiles the APK, these are sitting in plain sight. AutoSecT’s static analysis catches these during the scan, flagging them before they reach users’ devices.

Beyond hardcoded secrets, the platform also identifies weak encryption algorithms, insecure data storage practices, and code that lacks proper obfuscation or anti-tampering protections; all things that could be exploited once an app is in the wild.

SAST + DAST: Both Sides of the Coin

AutoSecT combines Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) in a single coordinated pipeline. Static analysis looks at the code itself, finding design flaws and vulnerabilities that live in unused code paths or configuration files. Dynamic analysis observes how the app actually behaves when it’s running.

Think of it this way: static testing is like reading the blueprint of a building. Dynamic testing is like walking through it and checking whether the locks actually work. You need both.

During dynamic testing, AutoSecT launches the app on a real device or emulator and interacts with it automatically logging in, navigating screens, testing deep links, replaying sessions, and fuzzing API parameters. It monitors memory, network traffic, and file storage in real time for leaks or unsafe behavior. If authentication can be bypassed or a session token can be replayed maliciously, it will find out.

Crucially, it also tests backend APIs out of the box. Since most mobile apps are essentially frontends for API-driven services, vulnerabilities like SQL injection, broken authentication, or XSS in the backend can be just as dangerous as anything in the app itself.

OWASP Mobile Top 10 Coverage

Every finding AutoSecT surfaces is mapped to the OWASP Mobile Top 10 the industry-standard list of the most critical mobile security risks. This means your security and development teams don’t have to debate severity. The risk context is already there, making it easier to prioritize fixes and communicate with stakeholders, from developers to CISOs.

Continuous Testing in Real-Time

One of the most powerful features of AutoSecT mobile is its Smart Scan Scheduler. Teams can configure light, quick, or advanced scans on a recurring schedule daily, weekly, or triggered with every new build. This turns security from a one-time audit into a continuous part of the development rhythm.

Once a vulnerability is patched, AutoSecT can automatically re-scan to verify the fix. Its repeat-detection logic ensures already-resolved issues don’t keep cluttering reports, so teams stay focused on real, outstanding threats.

Built for Entire Organization Security and Not Just Analysts

AutoSecT integrates with JIRA, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoho Cliq and Google Chat, so vulnerability findings can be assigned, tracked, and resolved within the tools teams already use. Role-based dashboards give developers, security analysts, and CISOs the specific views they need without overwhelming anyone with noise as well as AI-driven recommendations. Reports coming out in PDF and Excel, password-protected, and ready to share with clients or auditors.

Why AutoSecT Mobile Matters Right Now?

The mobile threat landscape isn’t slowing down. As more banking services go mobile-first, and as biometric authentication becomes the default for account access, the app itself becomes the primary target. An attacker who can find a hardcoded key or bypass authentication at the app level doesn’t need to break biometrics at all.

AutoSecT’s approach to deep structural analysis, combined SAST and DAST, continuous scanning, and OWASP-aligned reporting, closes the gap between how we think mobile apps work and how they actually behave under attack.

For security teams, that means fewer surprises. For development teams, that means security feedback early enough to act on. And for users, that means mobile banking apps they can actually trust.

AutoSecT Mobile FAQs

The post AutoSecT Mobile: Automating Android and iOS Security Testing appeared first on Kratikal Blogs.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Kratikal Blogs authored by Puja Saikia. Read the original post at: https://kratikal.com/blog/autosect-mobile-automating-android-and-ios-security-testing/