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At the same time, it is the most vulnerable
due to its open nature, making it a favourite
playground for fraudsters.
While, as mentioned in the Secure-D
report, it is always a good rule of thumb
for consumers to only download mobile
applications from Google’s official
storefront, Google Play, thanks to its scale
and set up, rogue apps are still getting
through its defences. Of the top 100 most
active malicious apps that were blocked in
2019, 32% are reported still available to
download on Google Play. A further 19% of
the worst-offending apps were previously on
Google Play but have since been removed,
while the remaining apps are available
through third-party app stores.
Fraudsters appear to target some app
categories more than others. Ironically, apps
designed to make a device function better
and make everyday life easier are the ones
most likely to be harmful with 22.32% of
malicious apps for 2019 falling under the
tools/personalisation/productivity category
globally. The next most popular categories
cybercriminals target are games (18.97%)
and entertainment/shopping (15.76%).
Indicating scale, in the course of only a
few months in 2019, Secure-D reported
on the suspicious background activity of
five very popular Android apps: 4shared, a
popular file-sharing app; Vidmate, a video
downloader; Weather Forecast a preinstalled
app on Alcatel devices; Snaptube, another
video and audio app; and ai.type, an on-
screen keyboard app.
With a total of nearly 700 million
downloads, these were or had been at
some point available on Google Play. In
these five cases alone, Secure-D detected
and blocked 353 million suspicious mobile
transactions preventing US$430 million in
fraudulent charges.
Dimitris Maniatis, CEO of Upstream, said:
“Mobile ad fraud is a criminal enterprise
on a massive scale. Though it may seem
that it is only targeted at advertisers, it
greatly affects the whole mobile ecosystem.
Most importantly it adversely impacts
consumers; eating up their data allowance,
bringing unwanted charges, messing with
the performance of their device and even
targeting and collecting their personal data.
“It is more than an invisible threat, it is an
epidemic, calling for increased mobile security
that urgently needs to rise up in the industry’s
priority list. Left unchecked, ad fraud will choke
mobile advertising, erode trust in operators
and lead to higher tariffs for users”.
The effects of mobile ad fraud are
particularly damaging in emerging markets
where data costs are significantly higher.
As evidenced from detailed data presented
from five such markets including Brazil and
South Africa fraud rates in most cases exceed
the 90% mark.
As Upstream’s report highlights
consumers in emerging markets are
more vulnerable to digital fraud; they are
unaware of the dangers as they often go
online for the first time via their mobile
devices and data depletion caused by
malware has a much greater effect on
them due to the high cost of data in their
countries. In Africa, 1GB of data costs
prepaid mobile subscribers the equivalent
of 16 hours of work at minimum wage.
“A key part of successfully tackling mobile
fraud is awareness,” added Maniatis.
“Something that the whole industry,
surprisingly, lacks. With all indicators pointing
that its value will grow in the hundreds of
billions in the next three years, we cannot
afford to remain idle. This is the main reason
we steadily and openly share all our findings
with the whole community.”
“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. However, as
the industry delays its response, consumers
should take steps to stay safe from mobile
ad fraud this year. For example, by using
anti-malware services like Play Protect, by
only downloading from the official Play
store after checking reviews carefully and
keeping a close check on bills for unwanted
subscriptions or charges.” n
“
A KEY PART OF
SUCCESSFULLY
TACKLING
MOBILE FRAUD IS
AWARENESS.
20
INTELLIGENTCIO
www.intelligentcio.com