We live in an ultra-connected world in which billions of corporate and personal data are manipulated through mobile devices every second. Smartphones and tablets have inherent capabilities that, when illegally exploited, enable hackers to locate users, eavesdrop on their communications, access their files, microphones, camera, etc., making them a target of choice.
Perpetrators can compromise mobile devices and access sensitive data through three vectors: Applications (malware, spyware, adware, leaky behaviors…), the network (Man-In-The-Middle attack, phishing attack…) and the device (OS vulnerabilities exploit…).
This report gives a holistic view of the mobile threats currently targeting organizations by quantifying threats operating at the application, network and device levels. It gathers the results of a research conducted by the Pradeo Lab in August 2018, based on a sample of 2 millions mobile applications and 500,000 mobile devices.
Key findings
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Data exfiltration through mobile applications is organizations' #1 threat
- 0-day malwares grew by 92% in the last 6-month period
- Location coordinates and contact lists are the most exfiltrated personal data
- Attacks through Public WiFi represent the most common network threat
- Vulnerable OS exploit affects a growing number of users
