Mobile Apps security risks revealed! Why monitoring is still key
Posted by Adriana Tayraco on Thu, Dec 01, 2011
The alarm on your phone rings, you wake up and reach for it and after turning it off (or snoozing a couple of times if you’re like me) what do you do? According to a survey conducted by Ericsson, 35% of smartphone users launch a mobile app before even getting out of bed. The survey also found out that consumers today depend less on the devices they use and more on the apps they run on them. The “app culture”, as it is being called, is dictating a new way of living and it is spreading onto tablet users and other smart devices. An average smartphone user has 22 installed apps; by 2012 it is expected that 50 billion apps will be downloaded each year and demand for mobile apps is expected to peak in 2013. Consumers are depending on apps to find a place to eat, socialize, share information, buy and sell, and even pay bills. What the “app culture” hasn’t realized is that by taking their lives into the cloud they are exposing their most sensitive information to hacks. Mobile apps have been known to purposely or accidentally harvest user data - that’s email, pictures, location, and passwords - using malware pre-installed on the app.
Mobile Apps risks and your company
Most of these fraudulent apps associate themselves with a company name or logo without prior authorization. They rely on the well-established and popular brand name in order to entice users to download and install malware onto their phones. If (and when) this happens to your brand, you will lose trustworthiness the moment consumers see any association between your company and a fraudulent application, even if you can prove your innocence. Companies have lost millions on dropped sales and revenue because they did not react to an online threat on time.
Mobile App Monitoring
As technology advances, it brings new and unexplored opportunities for companies to either secure or damage their reputation. Mobile application monitoring is a relatively new security feature and one that companies are finding it increasingly necessary to have, which is why BrandProtect has released its Mobile App Monitoring tool capable of performing regular searches of the Apple App Store, BlackBerry App World, and the Android Market and look for any reference to the target organization. The search features are not constrained to local results; if the client’s primary market is Brazil then the Brazilian versions of the app stores will be searched as well. BrandProtect’s Mobile App Monitoring service is an add-on to any of our primary services: Brand Abuse, Identity Theft Attack Management, or Social Media Monitoring.
For more information on any of our services or if you would like to sign up for Mobile App Monitoring, please contact BrandProtect at sales@brandprotect.com