With the advancements in technology, mobile applications have become highly popular in comparison to personal computers and laptops. These devices are very easy to carry which is the main reason behind their success. Now, mobile devices can perform almost all the functions which the personal laptops can. According to a study in the last year approximately there has been 10% more increase in the sale of mobile phones. With this increase in sale approximately 50% of time spent why the users online are on mobile devices only.
People have engaged to themselves into various activities, for example, messaging each other, watching movies and performing various kinds of bank-related transactions. With the help of this, the business houses can gather a lot of information about the consumers, for example, the location, their phone number, their likes as well as dislikes so that their behaviour can be predicted and marketing strategies of the organizations can be planned. This will help the business houses to make more precise decisions which will help in improving their services and widening the consumer base. This is the main reason for the importance of mobile app security.
The mobile app security can be referred to as various measures that will help in providing full security to the applications from external threats which may include malware and other frauds. In case the applications are not protected from such threats then there can be a huge risk to the personal as well as financial information of the users. This information can be very easy to misuse by hackers. So, mobile apps security is the need of the hour. One cannot take any kind of risk with such things because the hackers can very easily get access to the personal information of the users in real-time which can cause different kinds of problems for the users.
The weak mobile application security can have different kinds of impacts on users and other things. The consumers often trust different business houses at the time of giving them information. According to a study, approximately 50% of the companies provide no budget towards mobile application security. Approximately 30 to 35% of companies do not scan the codes in the mobile applications which are associated with security vulnerabilities. Near about 40% of companies do not test their mobile applications in terms of security before launching them. Because of this information, the hackers get a lot of motivation and they misuse the information very easily.
Some of those impacts in terms of misuse by hackers are mentioned as follows:
- The hackers can get access to very precious consumer information: With the help of this information, the hackers can get the login of any of the website or device. They may get the login to banking as well as social networking websites. Once a device has been infected then it will automatically send the file store the hackers and he or she will have full access to the personal files on the mobile device of the users stop even in the worst of the cases the user will be unable to accept the calls. All the data including the contact list, emails, information about locations will be sent to the hacker and which can be very easily misused by them.
-The hackers will have access to the financial information of the users: The hackers can also have access to the debit and credit card information and they can misuse this information to make various kinds of unauthorized bank transactions especially in all those cases where OTP is not required. A lot of hackers are professionals in this field because of which they can gain credentials and credit card information from the devices of users. They can also have access to the SMS feature of the devices which will allow them to manipulate various kinds of banking transactions. The hackers can even have access to mobile banking because of which they can undertake various kinds of frauds. Online shopping scam and bank account transfer is the most common issue faced by people in all such cases.
-The intellectual property theft is also very common: The hackers can create clones very easily or they can steal the intellectual property of the company that owns the particular app. Most successful companies have different kinds of clones. As a general rule, a more popular company is, more will be its clones. Because of this, the applications are easily available on the play store. This is the biggest threat to companies from hackers and other people who misuse this kind of things.
– The companies have reported huge losses in terms of revenue: With the unethical practices of the hackers, they can get access to the premium features of the applications which are the biggest source of earning for the application owners. When the hackers exploit the security holes in the applications and get access to the premium features it can cause great losses to the owners of the applications. This is another biggest threat to the companies because the major source of income has been hacked by hackers.
-The brand confidence can be shaken significantly: The companies will face a lot of loss in terms of crucial data of users because of which the confidence of users on the particular company and application will be shaken. This kind of misusage of the information can also lead to lawsuits from the parties which are affected. When the application is completely secured the consumers will stay loyal all the time and will trust the brand very easily. But in case the application is weak in terms of security then the confidence of the consumers will be shaken forever. The company should realize their centre of the business lays always in the confidence of the consumers in a particular brand. So, companies must plan properly and consider this particular point of view of the consumers.
Hence, proper and effective measures for mobile application security must be taken by various companies so that consumers from those applications are highly satisfied.
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