CompTIA, a non-profit trade association for the global IT industry, has launched a new skills certification programme designed to raise security awareness in mobile app development.

The certification, dubbed CompTIA Mobile App Security+, validates the skills required to securely create a mobile application, while also ensuring secure network communications and backend web services.

CompTIA has launched two editions of the certification exam – one for native Android and the other iOS mobile applications.

“Mobile apps numbering in the millions are downloaded daily on smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices,” said Terry Erdle, executive vice president of skills certification at CompTIA.

“But too often, in the dizzying race to bring new apps to market quickly, security considerations are an afterthought. With these new certifications we aim to bring the security focus back to where it belongs – in the starting blocks of mobile app development.”

Candidates for the CompTIA Mobile App Security+ credential, says the industry trade group, will come from several job roles. These include mobile app developers, software developers, applications development managers and network security developers.