Mobile Apps Can Increase Enterprise Security Risks

24 Feb Mobile Apps Can Increase Enterprise Security Risks

Two reports were released recently which demonstrate that the growing pervasiveness of mobile technology is leading to increased security risks. Fanning the flames further is the pervasive use of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies in place at many private and government organizations.

In the first report from Trend Micro, data collected in 2016 showed a sharp increase in the number of malware programs specifically targeted at Andriod devices. This number nearly doubled from 10.7 million samples in 2015 to 19.2 million in 2016. Globally, malware in the form of harmful and unwanted application tops the list of the samples taken and in the U.S. spyware and adware has been posing the biggest threats. Ransomware also made its way to mobile this past year as well as mobile banking Trojans and programs designed to gain root access to mobile devices.

The second study by the Ponemon Institute was conducted on behalf of IBM Security. This report surveyed IT firms directly and found that 60% of the companies reviewed had been breached during the past year with 30% of the hacking taking place on mobile devices. Surprisingly 44% of the companies interviewed admitted to not taking measures to protect the mobile devices being used by their employees. Despite these sobering facts, less than a third of respondents said their organizations were actively working toward a more secure solution.

Many of the security loopholes have come from a rush to release new software applications. “This is a huge mistake. One hack could set an organization back dramatically in terms of financial losses, brand damage, recovery costs, and even drop in stock price,” said Mandeep Khera, CMO at Arxan. “Although the top-tier companies are doing a much better job of protecting themselves against mobile threats, most of the companies are falling behind,” as the number of mobile apps have proliferated. Khera says. “Hackers are finding mobile apps a great place to attack and these apps in the wild have binary code that’s vulnerable and unprotected,” Khera went on to say.

So it turns out that both large and small businesses are being attacked regularly with maliciousness aimed directly at their mobile network. These attacks will only continue to grow in both severity and sophistication. Take the first step at protecting your business today by contacting Auditmacs for a review.