92 Per Cent of iOS Top 100 Apps Hacked, says Arxan

92 per cent of the Top 100 paid Apple iOS apps - and 100 percent of the Top 100 paid Android apps - have been hacked, according to research by Arxan.

Hacked versions of mobile apps were found across all key industries, and hacks included disabled or circumvented security, unlocked or modified features, free pirated copies, ad-removed versions, source code/IP theft, and illegal malware-infested versions.

Free apps were also hit, though less frequently - 40 per cent of popular free iOS apps and 80 per cent of the same Android apps were found to have been hacked.

"We envision a thriving app economy with the freedom and confidence to innovate and distribute new apps," says Arxan VP Jukka Alanen. "However, this potential is being threatened by hackers, and most enterprises, security teams, and app developers are not prepared for these attacks. The traditional approaches to application security such as secure software development practices and vulnerability scanning cannot address the new hacking patterns that we identified. The findings call for new approaches for mobile app owners to build protections directly inside their apps to withstand these new attacks."