Infographic courtesy of Arxan
Exactly how secure are the mobile health and mobile finance apps we use? Arxan set out to find that answer in their 5th Annual State of Application Security report. The new research analyzed 126 popular mobile health and finance apps from the US, UK, Germany, and Japan. It also examined the perceived level of security app users and app executives believe to have in their applications. A huge discrepancy between consumer confidence in the level of security and the degree to which organizations address known application vulnerabilities was discovered.
Below are some of the report’s key findings:
- Consumers and app executives believe their mobile health and finance apps are secure. A combined 84 percent of mobile app users and mobile app executives believe that their mobile health and finance apps are “adequately secure,” and 63 percent believe that app providers are doing “everything they can” to protect their mobile health and finance apps.
- The majority of mobile health and finance apps contain critical security vulnerabilities. 90 percent of the mobile health and finance apps tested had at least two of the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Mobile Top 10 Risks. More than 80 percent of the health apps tested that were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the UK National Health Service (NHS) were also found to have at least two of the OWASP Mobile Top 10 Risks.
- The security and safety risks are real and significant. 98 percent of the mobile apps tested lacked binary protection – this was the most prevalent security vulnerability identified. 83 percent of the mobile apps had insufficient transport layer protection. Such vulnerabilities could result in application code tampering, reverse-engineering, privacy violations, and data theft. In addition to sensitive data being taken, the vulnerabilities could lead to a health app being reprogrammed to deliver a lethal dose of medication, or a finance app to redirect the transfer of money.
- Most consumers would change providers if they knew their apps were not secure. 80 percent of mobile app users would change providers if they knew the apps they were using were not secure. 82 percent would change providers if they knew alternative apps offered by similar service providers were more secure.
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