Research: Mobile Cyberattacks Impact Every Business

Mobile phones

Accra, Ghana, November 28, 2017//-As businesses around the globe increasingly adopt mobility programmes to boost productivity and profitability, cyberattacks continue to grow in sophistication and frequency.

Yet today nearly two-thirds of security professionals doubt their organizations can prevent a breach to employees’ devices, while 94% expect the frequency of mobile attacks to increase, according to a latest report released by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, world’s  largest network cyber security vendor.

The report, prepared by Check Point’s mobile threat research team, is the first to study the impact of mobile attacks in enterprise environments by assessing actual threat telemetry of corporate-owned and bring-your-own devices.

The results are stark: enterprise mobility is under constant attack, affecting all regions and industries, on both major mobile platforms, Android and iOS.

Threats to mobile users are myriad and powerful, and ultimately capable of compromising any device, accessing sensitive data at any time.

The report released today reveals the major trends in mobile malware and other attack vectors, where they operate, and which industries are the most frequent targets.

THE KEY FINDINGS OF THIS RESEARCH ARE

Every company is under some form of mobile attack; the most affected industries are financial services and governments; the most mobile attacks occur on businesses in the Americas; iOS (Apple) devices are not immune to breaches; and while the vast majority of attacks are on android devices

METHODOLOGY

 The data in this report was collected from deployments of Check Point SandBlast Mobile in 850 organizations that secured a minimum of 500 devices from July 1, 2016 to July 1, 2017. All data was normalized for the purpose of this analysis.

This study’s findings are grouped regionally to include EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), APAC (Asia and the Pacific), and the Americas. Vertical sectors are grouped into seven categories: Financial Services (banks, insurance, and brokerage firms), Government, Technology, Manufacturing, Telcos, which refer to mobile carriers, and Other, which includes a number of vertical industries that are not well represented in SandBlast Mobile’s customer base.

EVERY ENTERPRISE HAS EXPERIENCED A MOBILE ATTACK. THEY JUST DON’T KNOW IT.

Each organization in our sample experienced at least one mobile malware attack during the past year. That said, the average number of mobile malware attacks per organization was 54.

BUSINESSES AVERAGED 54 MOBILE MALWARE INFECTIONS

 Organizations suffer from different types of mobile attacks beyond malware. 89% experienced at least one man-in-the-middle attack over a Wi-Fi network. Even though enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions were in place, 75% of the organizations in our sample had at least one jailbroken iOS device or rooted Android device connected to their corporate networks.

The average number of rooted or jailbroken devices in our sample was 35 per company. These results are concerning because the process of rooting or jailbreaking a device strips away all built-in security provided by the iOS and Android operating systems.

EVERY ENTERPRISE IS UNDER ATTACK

100% OF ALL BUSINESSES HAD A MALWARE ATTACK;

54 IS THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF MOBILE MALWARE ATTACKS PER BUSINESS;

89% EXPERIENCED A MAN-IN-THE-MIDDLE ATTACK ; and OVER WI-FI 75% AVERAGED 35 ROOTED OR JAILBROKEN DEVICES ON NETWORK

AN INDUSTRY-BY-INDUSTRY VIEW OF THE SURVEY SAMPLE

Technology companies represent the largest percentage (32%) of protected devices in our sample, followed by financial services (21%), such as banks, brokerages, and insurance firms (Chart 1). Manufacturers composed 15% of our sample, with telecommunication companies (12%), retailers (7%), and government agencies (5%) rounding out the analysis.

African Eye Report

 

 

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