Study highlights poor encryption practices plaguing iOS, Android apps
An annual report assessing the vulnerability and threat landscape for organizations, zeroed in on encryption issues that often plague mobile applications.
According to HP's Cyber Risk Report 2013, 46 percent of Android and iOS apps used encryption improperly, leaving users' data vulnerable to theft or misuse.
Out of more than 180 iOS and Android apps audited in HP's data set, developers “either completely miss[ed] encryption before storing sensitive information on [a] device or often [relied] on weak algorithms,” to secure mobile data, the report revealed. A slim portion of apps afflicted with encryption issues last year, 8 percent, were impacted by poorly implemented certificate verification.