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The fears over a security attack against mobile and IoT apps in the workplace continues to rise, according to new research.
The study, from Ponemon Institute, IBM Security, and Arxan Technologies, argues that, of the almost 600 survey respondents, 60% are aware that their organisation has suffered a security incident through an insecure mobile app. Of that number, 11% of overall respondents know with ‘certainty’, 15% opted for ‘most likely’ and 34% went with ‘likely’.
What’s more, IoT apps appear to be causing a lot of the problems; 84% of those polled said IoT apps were hard to secure compared with mobile apps (69%), while 55% of respondents said there is a lack of quality assurance and testing for IoT apps. 58% said they were concerned about getting hacked through an IoT app, compared with 53% for a mobile app, while almost half (44%) of organisations are taking no steps to prevent potential attacks.
According to the study authors, a meagre budget allocation is one of the key reasons why businesses are less than urgent in looking to protect themselves, while another factor cited was where the budget lies, in other lines of business instead of security.
“While 60% of respondents confirm that their organisation has already experienced a data breach caused by an insecure mobile app, and more than half are very concerned about likelihood of an attack, 44% are taking no steps to protect their apps,” said Mandeep Khara, chief marketing officer of Arxan in a statement.
“The laissez-faire attitude toward the security of mobile and IoT applications needs to come to an end and organisations must start emphasising security in the development process in order to prevent a detrimental attack,” added Khara. “One breach can set a company back dramatically in brand damage, financial loss and recovery costs. You have to think of the old idiom – penny wise, pound foolish.”
You can read the full study here (email registration required).
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