A recent report has shown that most of the leading Android and iOS applications have been hacked.
The third annual “State of Mobile App Security” report has now been released, and what it has revealed was that mobile security in both Android and iOS based applications is not high enough to be able to keep hackers from getting in.
How many have been hacked? 87 percent of the top 100 paid Apple iOS apps and 97 percent of the top paid Android apps!
Beyond the rise in mobile security breaches in apps that are occurring among the Popular Free apps that are most frequently downloaded, the report from this year also showed that there was evidence of hacking that was quite commonplace in the applications in the following categories: financial services, retail and merchants, healthcare and medical. Overall, these were primarily driven by hacks in mobile apps for Android devices.
This shows that there remains a serious concern with regards to mobile security in top apps of all types and forms.
The report is produced by Arxan and it has provided an update over the indicators that have been published in previous years with regards to the prevalence of mobile security issues in the form of hacked apps over the two largest smartphone platforms, Android and iOS. Considering the rapid growth of the global mobile app usage, the insight provided in this report could be quite important.
This report also projected that there will be an increase in the download rate of free mobile apps of 99 percent, to the point that they will reach 253 billion downloads in 207. In the paid app download category, it is expected that there will be a 33 percent increase by 2017, when it will reach 15 billion downloads.
The mobile security risk associated with hacking in apps is remaining stead with Android apps, as the figures showed that 97 percent of the top paid apps have been hacked. That said, the risk of hacking in the top paid iOS apps is considerably higher now than it had been last year, as it is now at 87 percent, compared to last year’s 56 percent.
Businesses that have bring your own device (BYOD) programs must protect themselves against this risk.
The mobile security risk that is created by the use of tablets and smartphones in businesses as a result of the use of third party apps has experienced a “monumental increase” according to the results of a recently published report.
What it showed as that these concerns have been steadily and considerably growing.
This is the case, said the report, even in the activation of enterprise apps that have greater mobile security complexity, particularly in terms of secure browsing. This information was published within the Q1 2014 Mobile Index Report that was issued by Good Technology. It also revealed that organizations are actually trying to take back control over their risks by leveraging enterprise apps that do provide greater protection.
The data for this mobile security report is gleaned from the activation tracking done by Good Technology.
That company has tracked activations over mobile devices and platforms and then leveraged its findings from over 5000 of its customers around the world. Within the report, it was explained that companies have called IT their leading concern for this year. Moreover, there has been a considerable 57 percent growth rate (quarter over quarter) in the activations of secure enterprise apps. This is an increase over 54 percent in the previous quarter and 43 percent in the one before that.
It was also underscored by Good Technology that these are “not surprising” results. The Ponemon Institute published the 2014 State of Endpoint Risk report which also placed the spotlight on risks connected with the use of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. It identified third party apps as the leading risk faced by business IT departments.
The Good Mobility Index Report indicated that the total number of activations of browsing apps with heightened mobile security throughout the customer base of Good Technology saw an unbelievable 2900 percent increase during this quarter. This brought it to the app category that is fifth most activated. In previous quarters, it hadn’t even made it into the top ten most activated lists.
