A new report by CheckPoint shows an increase in cyber-attacks on enterprise mobile devices in 2020. Attacks ranged from the distribution of infected apps to ransomware attacks, and for the first time, attacks exploiting the corporate Mobile Device Management system.
Among the key findings are the increase in organizations in 2020 that faced mobile threats using multiple attack vectors (97%), 46% of organizations had an employee or employees download a malicious mobile app, and at least 40% of mobile devices are vulnerable to cyberattacks.
In its 2021 Mobile Security Report, CheckPoint., a well-known cybersecurity company, examines the latest emerging threats for enterprise mobile devices and the major trends in mobile malware. It also shows how organizations can protect themselves against today’s and tomorrow’s complex mobile threats and how these threats are likely to be evolving.
The company says in the report that since the mass shift to remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic, almost every organization has experienced at least one mobile malware attack in 2020. Ninety-three percent of these attacks originated in a device network when attackers tricked users into installing a malicious script via infected websites or URLs or stole users’ credentials.
“As we have seen in 2020, the mobile threat landscape has continued to expand with almost every organization now having experienced an attack,” said Neatsun Ziv, VP Threat Prevention at CheckPoint Software. “And there are more complex threats on the horizon. Cybercriminals are continuing to evolve and adapt their techniques to exploit our growing reliance on mobiles. Enterprises need to adopt mobile security solutions which seamlessly protect devices from today’s advanced cyber threats, and users should be careful to use only apps from official app stores to minimize their risk.”
In addition, CheckPoint noted that mobile malware is on the rise: there was a 15% increase in banking Trojan activity in 2020. Threat actors have been spreading Mobile Remote Access Trojans (MRATs), banking trojans, premium dialers, hid malware in apps that claim to offer COVID-19 related information, and more.
In 2020, Check Point discovered a new significant trend. For the first time, threat actors abused a large global corporation’s Mobile Device Management (MDM) system and successfully dropped malware to over 75% of its managed mobile devices.
Check Point’s 2021 Mobile Security Report is based on data that was collected from January 1st, 2020 through December 31st, 2020, from 1,800 organizations. To read the full report, visit https://pages.checkpoint.com/mobile_security_report_2021.html
