According to a recent report, device users aren’t necessarily confident in this form of storage.
Cyber and mobile security and app delivery solutions firm, Radware, has recently released a report called “Mobile Application Security: Consumer Perspectives and Organizational Implications,” in which it was revealed that the cloud isn’t exactly eliciting feelings of confidence from consumers.
Harris Poll conducted the online survey on behalf of Radware and involved the participation of 2,000 American consumers.
The survey was geared toward the opinions of adults in the United States with regards to the mobile security of cloud-based apps and service and the way they’re used. It was determined that it is not uncommon for consumers to be unaware of the fact that many of the mobile apps they use on a regular basis are dependent on the cloud. This means that they are also unaware of the potential threat they face to their personal information if the cloud storage was ever breached.
This lack of understanding of mobile security could be considered troubling simply because it may reduce protection efforts.
Among the participants in the study, 67 percent said that they were not using cloud-based mobile apps. That said, applications that use the cloud are rapidly growing in their popularity and usage. At the same time, 87 percent of Americans feel that cloud based apps are at risk of being hacked. Another 58 percent of cloud based service or application users said that they were concerned about the safety of their personal data if those apps or services should ever experience a cyber attack.
According to Radware director of security solutions marketing, Ben Desjardins, “Data breaches and hacks are not only on the rise, they are becoming commonplace.” He added that “At the same time, cloud-based apps are booming, offering convenient ways to expedite and simplify daily needs from ordering a meal to requesting a car with the tap of a finger.”
Desjardins explained that the majority of consumers don’t actually understand their relationship with cloud based applications. Therefore, it will be up to the companies that are working to engage with mobile device users by way of those applications to bear the burden of mobile security education as well as of remediation if they should ever experience a cyber attack in which any personal information could be threatened.
Apple described in the patent filing that enrollment into Touch ID could potentially be “cumbersome for users in some instances, such as when multiple fingerprints, users and/or devices are used.” By synchronizing the process using a cloud based function, it would help to eliminate the need to re-register a device owner’s fingerprints on every device, in addition to the fingerprints of all of the other people who are to be given permission to access the iOS gadget.