Allot MobileTrends report reveals mobile business users incur highest malware risk

Allot Communications Ltd., the global provider of security and monetisation solutions that enable service providers to protect and personalise the digital experience, together with Kaspersky Lab, have announced the release of Allot MobileTrends Report H1 2016, Mobile Users at Risk. Using a range of behavioural profiles, the report analyses the correlation between mobile Apps and URLs usage and user potential for malware risk. Findings show that individual behaviour is a significant and even decisive indicator of malware risk. The report goes on to suggest that communication service providers (CSPs) are uniquely positioned to safeguard mobile users at risk with targeted Security-as-a-Service delivered from their network or cloud.

Key Findings:

• Potential Malware risk is affected both by the online behaviour of the user and by the App or URL itself. In other words, it's not just the App; it's how you use it;
• Business users display the riskiest online behaviour. 79 per cent of businessmen and 67 per cent of businesswomen use potentially risky Apps every day;
• Youth and Millennials are also at high risk, with 65 per cent of them using potentially risky Apps every day
• While mobile App downloads are often protected, their ongoing use is not protected, making users vulnerable to malware threats.

"Our MobileTrends findings clearly show that safeguarding users at the network level would be the most effective method for protecting against multiple types of mobile threats, as the security measures can provide a protective umbrella for all online activity," said Yaniv Sulkes, AVP Marketing at Allot Communications. "Moreover, mobile operators are perfectly positioned to provide protection to consumers and businesses. We see a golden opportunity for mobile operators to identify and reach out to customers at risk, targeting them with personalised Security-as-a-Service from their network or cloud," continued Mr. Sulkes.

"We partnered with Allot Communications over a year ago to ensure the cybersecurity of the mobile sector. The partnership started when we provided Allot with Kaspersky Anti-Virus SDK to filter and protect mobile traffic from malware and other cyber threats. We are now pleased to widen our partnership and highlight to companies in the sector the potential mobile users' risky behaviours – especially as mobile devices are the main Internet access points for many users, while only about half of users use security solutions on their mobile devices", commented Alexander Karpitsky, Head of Technology Licensing, Kaspersky Lab.

The research analysed mobile data records from a random sample of 500,000 mobile users during a 7-day period, and included Android, iOS and Windows Phone operating systems. The malware experts at Kaspersky Lab assigned categories to the top 500 URLs, while Allot categorised the top 500 Apps in the sample and also classified each App and URL sample as "safe" or "risky." To determine the potential for malware risk, we correlated the online behavioural profiles that we identified in our previous Allot MobileTrends Report (5+1 Touch-Point Triggers for Smart Customer Engagement) with the Apps and URLs that they use on a daily basis.