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TRENDING
STUDY SHOWS 93%
OF ATTEMPTED MOBILE
TRANSACTIONS WERE
FRAUDULENT
A report from mobile technology company Upstream analyses
the threats posed by malware and mobile ad fraud and exposes
the dangers faced by users.
A
total of 93% of total mobile
transactions in 20 countries were
blocked as fraudulent in 2019,
according to a report on the state of
malware and mobile ad fraud released by
mobile technology company, Upstream.
The Invisible Digital Threat data is based
on deployments of Upstream’s Secure-D
full-stack anti-fraud platform that detects
and blocks fraudulent mobile transactions
mostly originated from ad fraud malware.
The platform at the end of 2019 covered 31
mobile operators in 20 countries.
In the markets examined, Upstream’s
security platform processed 1.71 billion
mobile transactions and blocked 1.6 billion
www.intelligentcio.com
of them as fraudulent, a staggering 93%
of total transactions. It is estimated that
left unchecked these transactions would
have cost users US$2.1 billion in unwanted
charges. For the industry, losses from online,
mobile and in-app advertising reached
US$42 billion in 2019 and are expected to
reach US$100 billion by 2023.
The number of malicious apps discovered by
Secure-D last year rose to 98,000, up from
63,000 in 2018. These 98,000 malicious
apps had infected 43 million Android devices.
With Android devices now accounting for
an estimate 75–85% of all smartphone
sales worldwide, Android is by far the most
dominant mobile operating system (OS).
“
MOBILE AD FRAUD
REMAINS A
HIDDEN THREAT
FOR MOST
CONSUMERS. IT
USUALLY GOES
UNDETECTED
AND IS NOT HIGH
ON PEOPLE’S
AGENDAS WHEN
CHOOSING APPS.
INTELLIGENTCIO
19