Singapore: Adopted Safe App Standard for Mobile Applications by Cyber Security Agency

On 10 January 2024, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) adopted the Safe App standard, a recommended security benchmark for mobile applications. Developed in consultation with industry partners, the standard aims to enhance the security of mobile apps in Singapore, protecting them against common malware and phishing attempts. The standard focuses on four critical areas: authentication, which ensures secure user identity validation, authorisation, which delineates access rights within an app, data storage (data-at-rest), which safeguards the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive data stored and anti-tampering and anti-reversing, which counteracts attempts to tamper or reverse engineer apps. The standard is addressed to apps that perform high-risk transactions, such as those involving access to users' financial accounts.