Nowadays, a lot of users are highly dependent upon mobile devices both professionally as well as personally. The mobile devices help to achieve several kinds of goals about the daily life of individuals and depending upon them several kinds of decisions are made by the users. But on the other hand of this whole scenario in case the mobile devices and the applications access goes the wrong hands then the whole concept can prove to be very much harmful to the users and can lead to huge unimaginable losses.
This is the main reason companies should go with the option of app security and protecting it properly from the external threats so that financial, personal and commercial information of the users is always safe from the wrong hands of hackers. There are several kinds of unethical people who want to steal the information of the people and use it up to their advantage which is the main reason a lot of companies are investing their funds and efforts towards mobile application security. Any of the breaches in the mobile application security can provide access to the hackers about personal, commercial and financial information which can lead to several kinds of losses.
The consumers are many times dependent upon several kinds of security measures but the following are some of the facts that help to break the consumer confidence on such applications:
-Approximately more than 50% of the companies do not devote any portion of their budget towards mobile application security.
-More than 40% of the companies do not go with the option of scanning the code at the time of mobile application security procedures
-Approximately more than 1 billion people have been affected by the issues like cyberattacks which were because of weak mobile application security
-On average the companies test only less than half of the applications which they launch in a particular year
– Approximately more than 30% of the companies never go with the option of testing their mobile applications to ensure safety levels.
The above-mentioned facts are enough to shake the consumer confidence on any of the particular Company. Following are some of the points that very well highlight the impact of weak application security and types of losses which can occur:
-The hackers can gain the access to financial information: The hackers can very easily gain the credit as well as debit card numbers to make several kinds of authorized bank transactions especially in all those cases where there is no requirement of the one-time password. According to research, the hackers go with the option of launching the virus called Trojan that can easily steal the entire user credentials as well as credit card information from the device of person. This particular virus also can take control of phone SMS as well as calling features and can manipulate all the functions of the mobile device very easily.
– It can lead to theft related to the intellectual property of companies: Many times hackers also go with the option of getting the access to the intellectual property of the companies so that they can create illegal clones of applications and can steal all the rights of that particular company. Building an application, marketing it, gaining the intellectual property is not an easy process but hackers can very easily create that clones of all those applications which are very much popular on the play store. It is a very general rule that popular applications will have more number of clones in comparison to all others. A very classic example of this concept is of the game PUBG. In this particular case, Google had to warn all the users that the official game was not available on the Google play store.
-It can lead to loss of the revenue for the companies: In some of the cases, hackers can also gain access to the premium features of several applications. This concept is also prevalent in the cases of gaming, payment and utility applications which are the direct and main source of revenue for the owner of the application. A classic example of this case was in the year 2016 when while security company blue box revealed that hackers were accessing the features of that particular application, for example, Tinder and Hulu by exploiting the security holes in them which caused a lot of loss of revenue to the companies owner. Hulu was a platform which used to sell OTT streaming service.
– It can directly check the brand confidence of the users in the company: The data loss is a huge loss but apart from this the whole concept of hacking also comes with several other kinds of losses. This particular loss can come in the form of Miss Usage of the information of users which can lead to lawsuits to the company and all other people from the affected parties. The positive undertaking of the security drills will always help to make the consumers loyal to words the brand but in the adverse guess, the brand confidence of the users can significantly shake. So, the companies must go with the option of realization that centre of the business always lies in the confidence of users on the application and brand so the company should go with the option of implementing several kinds of data security-related policies so that their applications are highly safe as well as secure and there is no negative impact on the business.
Hence, companies must go with the option of implementing several kinds of guidelines and policies. Companies should also understand the impact of mobile application security because it is directly linked with the reputation of the brand. As the hacking attempts are increasing similarly the company should also go with the option of increasing their attempts to increase the security and for this purpose, a proper and dynamic analysis should be undertaken so that at the end of the day consumers are highly satisfied with the applications provided by company and security aspect is enhanced very well.
Rich Thomas