Dive Brief:
- Mobile business users, followed closely by millennials and young people, have the highest chance of incurring malware, according to a new study from Allot Communications. The study analyzed the mobile data records from a random sample of 500,000 mobile users over the course of seven days.
- The report found that 79% of businessmen and 67% of businesswomen use risky apps every day.
- Though the user's applications are protected when they are downloaded, their ongoing use makes the user vulnerable to malware.
Dive Insight:
When a business user is on the go, one of the last things they want to worry about is mobile security. Businesses with mobile workers should ensure they are safeguarding mobile usage, make employees aware of the dangers and emphasize protecting mobile devices, said Yaniv Sulkes, senior vice president of marketing at Allot Communications in an interview with eWEEK.
"We were generally surprised with the level of potential risk specific profiles have when using apps, but the most concerning finding is the strong correlation between the level of app usage to the increasing level of risk," Sulkes said.
Last week Europe's cybersecurity agency, released its annual report on the threat landscape. The report cited a growing trend of cyber criminals providing "Cyber Crime as a Service" and developing tools for non-experts to deploy. As criminals become more clever, the methods of their attacks have changed. In 2015, malware, web-based attacks and web application attacks topped the list of the greatest threats IT managers must face, according to the report.
