While 84 Percent of Consumers and IT Execs Believe Their Mobile Health and Finance Apps Are Secure, 90 Percent of Mobile Health and Finance Apps Test Positive for Two Critical Security Risks
BETHESDA, MD--(Marketwired - January 12, 2016) - Arxan Technologies, the leading provider of application protection solutions, today announced the publication of its 5th Annual State of Application Security Report. The new research is based on the analysis of 126 popular mobile health and finance apps from the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, as well as a study examining security perspectives of consumers and app security professionals.
Arxan discovered a wide disparity between consumer confidence in the level of security incorporated into mobile health and finance apps and the degree to which organizations address known application vulnerabilities. While the majority of app users and app executives indicate that they believe their apps to be secure, nearly all the apps Arxan assessed, including popular banking and payment apps and FDA-approved health apps, proved to be vulnerable to at least two of the top 10 serious security risks.
Among the research findings:
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.
"Mobile apps are often used by organizations to help keep customers 'sticky,' yet in the rush to bring new apps to market, organizations tend to overlook critical security measures that are proving crucial to consumer loyalty," said Patrick Kehoe, CMO of Arxan Technologies. "Our research in Arxan's 2016 State of App Security Report demonstrates that mobile app security is an important element in customer retention. Baking in robust mobile app security is not only a smart technology investment to keep the bad guys out, but also a smart business investment to help organizations differentiate from the competition and to achieve customer loyalty based on trust."
Research findings specific to the Health and Finance markets included:
Health Highlights
Finance Highlights
In its research, Arxan found few geographical discrepancies in mobile app security across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, and iOS apps were shown to be at least as vulnerable as Android apps.
Infographics - Report - Methodology
The full 2016 Arxan State of Application Security Report with methodology, consolidated (mobile health and finance), health-specific and finance-specific findings can be accessed here.
About Arxan Technologies
Arxan makes the world's applications universally secure and trusted. Our unique patented guarding technology 1) Defends applications against attacks, 2) Detects at run-time when an attack is being attempted, and 3) Responds to detected attacks to stop them, alert, or repair. Arxan offers solutions for software running on mobile devices, desktops, servers, and embedded platforms -- including those connected as part of the Internet of Things (IoT) -- and is currently protecting applications running on more than 500 million devices across a range of industries, including: financial services, high tech/independent software vendors (ISVs), manufacturing, healthcare, digital media, gaming, and others. The company's headquarters and engineering operations are based in the United States with global offices in EMEA and APAC.
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Contact Information:
Media Contacts:
Liana Hawes/JoAnn Yamani
arxanpr@gutenbergpr.com
212-242-2275/408-781-5719
Stephen McCarney
smccarney@arxan.com
301-968-4295