Tag: mobile security

Malicious mobile apps are becoming an increasingly problematic expense for advertisers.

Forensiq, a fraud detection firm, has now announced the results of its recent research, which indicated that mobile security issues produced by malicious apps are generating an additional cost to advertisers that is close to $1 billion every year.

In-app advertising has become a tremendous business, worth an estimated $20 billion in the United States.

This rate is continuing to grow along with the popularity of smartphones. However, of that amount that is being spent on mobile marketing, it is being estimated that about a twentieth of it is actually being wasted. Mobile security issues in the form of fraudulent and malicious apps that can hijack smartphones and convert them into ad-viewing botnets could be costing as much as $1 billion of that $20 billion in advertising money.

There are now many different known forms of these mobile security issues that plague device users and advertisers.

While there are a broad spectrum of different types of mobile fraud, which includes gadget emulation, location spoofing, and mobile user-agent spoofing, in addition to user acquisition scams, Forensiq says that it doesn’t stop there. It claims to have identified a new type of fraud, which it calls “mobile device hijacking.”

What that involves is the use of a malicious app that pretends to act as a human on a device by loading new pages or using various different application functions, each of which cause the device to load advertising. That said, while this may somewhat replicate human behavior, it also loads a much larger number of ads than would be the case with normal usage – up to 20 ads each minute. Often, this occurs in the background while the application in question isn’t being used, so that the owner of the device won’t even see that it is happening.

This mobile security problem is leading to an estimated $1 billion in lost dollars for marketers, but it also causes the device to eat through a user’s battery life and bandwidth. This means that it’s not just advertisers who are paying for this fraud, but the device owners, themselves, will also often face increased costs.

MIC shows that mobile shopping is gaining ground among consumers

With the rise in smartphone ownership, mobile commerce is expected to become more prominent in Taiwan, despite the security concerns that many consumers and businesses still have. According to the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), many consumers in Taiwan are beginning to show favor for mobile shopping, which is accelerating the growth of the e-commerce space by a considerable margin. MIC notes that nearly 70% of online users in Taiwan have spent more on mobile shopping than through traditional e-commerce.

Security worries are not slowing the adoption of mobile commerce

While consumers are becoming more interested in mobile commerce, they are still concerned about the security of their financial information. Mobile shopping leverages this information to conduct transactions online in much the same way that e-commerce transactions are processed, but consumers see mobile platforms as less secure than others they may be more comfortable with. In the past, retailers engaging in mobile commerce have been targeted by malicious groups, which has lead to the financial information of many people being compromised. Despite this, however, mobile commerce continues to flourish, with Taiwan on its way to becoming a prominent market.

Consumers are happy with their mobile shopping experiences

A recent survey from MIC shows that the number of consumers that have participated in mobile shopping reached 62.5% at the end of 2014. Approximately 61.5% of these consumers noted that they had a positive experience with mobile shopping, and these people are more likely to use their mobile devices to shop for and purchase products in the future. Of the features that consumers like about mobile commerce, the ability to shop anywhere and at anytime, the convenient nature of mobile shopping, and the deals consumers can take advantage of are among the most attractive.

Taiwan’s mobile commerce market expected to continue thriving

Mobile commerce is expected to continue growing in Taiwan as more consumers gain access to mobile devices. Businesses are also beginning to take more interest in mobile commerce as they look for more effective ways to engage mobile consumers. Taiwan is emerging as one of the region’s most powerful mobile markets, and security concerns about mobile commerce are doing little to slow growth.