Category: Mobile Security

Smartphone penetration leads to the rise of mobile commerce

In Asia, smartphone penetration is accelerating and these devices are becoming more popular for those that are interested in shopping online. By 2018, Asia is expected to account for half the world’s mobile users, with many people beginning to use their smartphones and tablets to play games, purchase products, and use social networks. As mobile adoption rises, however, fraud is becoming a greater problem in the mobile commerce space in Asia.

Japan, South Korea, and China have become very attractive mobile markets

Currently, Japan and South Korea are leading the way when it comes to mobile commerce adoption, with approximately 50% of both country’s populations engaging in mobile transactions. China has also become a very prominent mobile commerce market. In the first quarter of this year, mobile sales in China reached $58.4 billion, according to a recent report from iResearch. Companies are beginning to invest more heavily in the mobile space, and this is making the sector more attractive to malicious parties.

Mobile commerce fraud is becoming more common

While mobile commerce represents only 14% of all transactions being made in Asia, it also accounts for 21% of all fraudulent transactions being made through mobile devices. As fraud continues to grow, mobile commerce merchants are beginning to feel extreme financial pressure. Merchants incur costs of $3.34 for every dollar that is being spend on a fraudulent mobile transaction. This is 27% higher than the costs merchants would incur from a fraudulent transaction being made on a traditional PC.

Mobile security is becoming a priority for businesses and consumers alike

Several merchants in Asia are beginning to get involved in the mobile commerce space, but they will have to find ways to better protect consumer information. Security risks have been a major concern for consumers, and these concerns have slowed the adoption of mobile commerce platforms to some degree. Several companies offering mobile payments services have found ways to improve security through the use of biometric technology, which leverages biologic information, such as fingerprints, in order to protect transactions and consumer information.

This project has determined that about half of websites and mobile apps share this personal info.

An international project focused on online and mobile security has now released the results of an analysis that it conducted on 1,494 apps and websites around the globe, and they determined that over half are collecting and sharing the personal information of children.

This issue may be very worrisome to parents who are increasingly allowing their children to use mobile apps.

In fact, among the apps and websites that were analyzed by the mobile security project, 67 percent were collecting the personal information of children. Moreover, 50 percent of the analyzed sites and applications were sharing the personal information that they collected from children with other organizations. The project was taken on by the Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN). This analysis was conducted as a part of a broader annual privacy sweep and the numbers that they found with regards to what children were able to share with websites and apps were insightful.

This could represent a major mobile security issue of which parents had been previously unaware.

Among the key findings of the analysis by the GPEN were the following:

• 71 percent provided no opportunity for parents or children to delete account information
• 67 percent of sites and mobile apps were collecting personal information from kids
• 58 percent presented the opportunity for a child to be redirected to another website
• 32 percent had implemented effective controls to restrict personal information collection from kids
• 50 percent shared with third parties the personal information collected from children
• 24 percent encouraged the involvement of parents
• 23 percent contained features that allowed for the uploading of pictures or videos
• 22 percent presented an opportunity for a child to enter his or her telephone number

The GPEN has opted not to publish the list of sites and apps that were studied in this mobile security analysis. That said, it has been underscored, the majority of sites and apps collect and share this information for the purpose of targeted advertising and not for dubious reasons. Equally, the high importance of teaching children about online and mobile privacy was also stressed.