New NowSecure MobileRiskTracker™ – A Game Changer with Live Industry AppSec Scores

For years we have worked with organizations to better understand the security and privacy risks in the mobile apps they use and build. While organizations increasingly recognize the importance of mobile app security and privacy, we have had requests to publish industry-based benchmarks of mobile app risk across key industry categories. Today we announce our new MobileRiskTracker live benchmarking tool.

Using the power of the NowSecure Platform, we have created this interactive benchmark portal showing real-time analysis of the most popular, most widely downloaded mobile apps grouped by industry category. Today we are launching with the top 5,200 mobile apps in 12 industry categories shown below, with plans to add more industry groups and mobile apps over time. 

• Airline mobile apps
• Automotive mobile apps 
• Banking & Finance mobile apps
• Energy mobile apps – lowest average risk score
• FinTech & InsurTech mobile apps – highest average risk score
• Gig Economy mobile apps
• Healthcare mobile apps
• HiTech Business mobile apps – lowest average risk score
• Pharmaceutical mobile apps
• Retail mobile apps
• Social Media mobile apps
• Travel & Hospitality mobile apps – highest average risk score

Methodology: NowSecure Platform performs over 600 standards-based security and privacy tests on each mobile app each time a new version of the mobile app is updated in the app store. Risk is scored for each mobile app on a range from 0-100, with 100 as high quality and 0 low quality. 

Key insights in the MobileRiskTracker based on live data from Sept. 14, 2021 are as follows (please check the live MobileRiskTracker data for latest stats):

• The average risk score across ALL groups was a relatively poor 66/100, with 71% of all mobile apps showing security issues and 68% showing privacy issues.
• 131 of 5,200 total mobile apps transmit data to Russia, China, Hong Kong and other high-risk countries.
• The Pharmaceutical mobile apps had the highest security risk at 91% of all Pharma mobile apps with at least one security/privacy issue, followed by Energy at 84% and Automotive at 80%.
• The Gig Economy apps had the highest privacy risk at 91% of all Gig Economy mobile apps with at least one security/privacy issue, followed by FinTech & InsurTech at 80% and Pharma at 76%.
• Retail apps have the highest number of apps that scored as high risk with 54% of all apps in the retail industry group, followed by Travel & Hospitality and FinTech & InsurTech.
• Automotive apps have the highest number of apps scored as low risk with 27% of all apps in the automotive industry group, followed by FinTech/InsurTech, Healthcare and HiTech Business.

If you are a mobile app builder and developer, the MobileRiskTracker can help you understand the risks in your industry group and make sure you top your competitors. Please click the green “Find Out Your Security Score” button to get your personal benchmark peer review of how your specific mobile apps stack up next to others in your industry.

If you are an enterprise organization or government agency, please click the green “Find Out Your Security Score” button to get a free enterprise mobile app assessment benchmark for the portfolio of mobile apps your employees use.

Be sure to bookmark our MobileRiskTracker and come back frequently to see how the data has changed over time and explore new data sets as we add them. If you have feedback, suggestions for improvement, or just want to say hello, reach out to us via our contact us page.