ETtechAbout 75% of India’s top 100 Android apps contain security risks, according to a new study by mobile security testing platform Appknox.
These apps have access to lots of sensitive data, Appknox, which helps businesses and customers understand the security risks, said in the report titled - Evidence-based Insights – India’s Top 100 Android Mobile Apps tested for Cybersecurity.
These checks help determine essential parameters like how the app stores data, how much is shared and accessible, how secure its payments are, and possible loopholes that can lead to data leakages.
“We put together this report so that app developers realize the importance of creating apps with no vulnerabilities,” said Harshit Agarwal, chief executive of Appknox.
The research found that some of the most prominent Indian apps lag on even the most basic security checks.
About 79% of the apps were affected by network security misconfiguration, while 78% lacked sufficient code obfuscation. Insufficient obfuscation might lead to threat actors decompiling or reverse-engineering the code.
Further, 42% of the apps had insufficient transport layer protection, which happens when data is sent from the mobile app to the server over unsecured channels.
Out of the 2,976,112 apps on Google Play, more than 157,313 are from Indian publishers, with Meesho, Hotstar, Flipkart, Shopsy, PhonePe, Truecaller, Chingari, Paytm, ShareKaro, and Josh being the most downloaded ones from Indian publishers.
According to Forbes, India is now the number one country globally in the number of apps installed and usage per month.
These apps have access to lots of sensitive data, Appknox, which helps businesses and customers understand the security risks, said in the report titled - Evidence-based Insights – India’s Top 100 Android Mobile Apps tested for Cybersecurity.
Using its security solutions, the company put all the 100 applications through a rigorous automated testing process of 14 different test cases.
These checks help determine essential parameters like how the app stores data, how much is shared and accessible, how secure its payments are, and possible loopholes that can lead to data leakages.
“We put together this report so that app developers realize the importance of creating apps with no vulnerabilities,” said Harshit Agarwal, chief executive of Appknox.
The research found that some of the most prominent Indian apps lag on even the most basic security checks.
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About 79% of the apps were affected by network security misconfiguration, while 78% lacked sufficient code obfuscation. Insufficient obfuscation might lead to threat actors decompiling or reverse-engineering the code.
Further, 42% of the apps had insufficient transport layer protection, which happens when data is sent from the mobile app to the server over unsecured channels.
Out of the 2,976,112 apps on Google Play, more than 157,313 are from Indian publishers, with Meesho, Hotstar, Flipkart, Shopsy, PhonePe, Truecaller, Chingari, Paytm, ShareKaro, and Josh being the most downloaded ones from Indian publishers.
According to Forbes, India is now the number one country globally in the number of apps installed and usage per month.
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