Mobile Apps Pose Greater Risk for Regional Businesses

The increase in mobile penetration and the massive growth of an unregulated app market in Android-based devices have enabled cybercriminals to introduce infected applications.

Mobilk - Paladion, a leading security solutions provider in the region has announced that the increased uptake of enterprise mobility solutions has increased internal and external threats such as data leakage and network infringement. Due to the increased adoption of enterprise mobility solutions by a growing number of businesses, a new avenue for sophisticated cybercriminals has been created that launch their attacks with devastating impact on a brand’s reputation and stock prices. 

"As businesses capitalise on new opportunities by providing mobility services, they continuously face security breaches," explained Rajat Mohanty, CEO & Co-Founder, Paladion. "A recent study discovered that 90% of mobile banking applications for instance, have serious security problems that could potentially compromise user data. On the same lines, following a breach to one of their mobile applications, a financial institution turned to Paladion to ensure that all future applications were tested, compliant and above all secure for their customers."

According to Mohanty, the bank identified that its mobile banking application had suffered a major security breach, which put many of their customers at risk of exposing or losing their banking data. After a lot of research, the bank chose to work with Paladion because of its experience in cyber security and risk management. 

According to market research firm IDC, ICT spending in the MEA region has exceeded $270 billion in 2015, making it the second-fastest growing market worldwide. The adoption of smart devices in the Middle East and Africa is set to grow from 133 million in 2014 to 598 million devices in 2018. As far as the enterprise mobility and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) market is concerned, research firm MarketsandMarkets predicts that it will surpass the $284 billion mark by 2019 worldwide.

"However, while these devices might be empowering businesses and organisations, the many benefits that come with increased mobility, BYOD, has become a focus for cybercriminals to launch attacks," explained Mohanty. "The increase in mobile penetration and the massive growth of an unregulated app market in Android-based devices have enabled cybercriminals to introduce infected applications."

In order to put an end to such security issues, securing remote access through mobile devices and protecting the data and applications on those devices becomes critical for organizations in the region. "Mobility initiatives should be a collaborative effort between management and the CISO to map out policies and objectives and ensure they are aligned with operational imperatives, digital strategy, and IT architecture developments. Third-party expertise can be massively beneficial in this rapidly evolving area, so organizations should not hesitate to engage their trusted security partners in determining requirements and planning deployments," added Mohanty.

Thus, Paladion’s Mobile Application Security Testing Program includes code review, mobile application penetration testing, web application penetration testing, and security configuration audit among other features. It makes sure that the client creates more durable mobile apps based on improved threat elimination approach that can identify potential risks.

"Awareness sessions are also conducted and continuous communication is provided with development teams to help eradicate security issues with quick turnaround time and remediation validation. Thus, we build the trust and resilience needed to seize opportunities, reduce risks, and deploy new security models with minimal downtime," concluded Mohanty.