Cloud-based mobile security specialist Mojave Networks announced the launch of an application reputation feature to provide enterprises with detailed insight into the applications that are being run on employee mobile devices through bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives.
Available immediately, Mojave’s application reputation feature is available as part of Mojave’s professional and enterprise services. The company currently supports Google Android and Apple iOS operating systems. The service starts at $4 per month, per device following a free trial period.
With the updated functionality, organizations have the ability to dissect and analyze the data being collected, stored or transmitted from mobile applications, helping them to discover the potential risk of applications in their organization and make informed policies that could prevent compromises or data loss.
“On the surface, an application may seem safe, but there are always hidden risks,” Ryan Smith, Mojave’s lead threat engineer, said in a statement. “Approximately 50 percent of applications fall into our category of medium risk, meaning that they have the ability to access large amounts of sensitive data, and while they may not be obviously malicious, they still have a potential risk of data loss or compromise. With the detailed data we collect about each application in the Mojave Threat Labs, we are able to properly identify and reduce the risk of malicious attacks and data theft.”
Key features of the application reputation feature include integration with device management and network security, application tracking by platform, user and device, categorization of applications by risk level and customizable analytics.
In addition, users have the ability to deploy third-party applications and choose what apps best suit their specific devices.
According to data collected from Mojave Threat Labs, the typical mobile device on average has about 200 applications, including preinstalled and user-downloaded applications. Each application has an average of nine permissions that users must agree to before use.
Five of those permissions are typically considered moderate to high risk as they allow the applications to gain access to documents, logins, passwords and other sensitive data, which could cause a major security risk to an organization’s private data, the company found.
“The BYOD trend is transitioning to bring your own applications (BYOA) as users download more and more apps to share data, increase productivity and stay connected,” Garrett Larsson, CEO and co-founder of Mojave Networks, said in a statement. “If any application running on a mobile device connected to the network is insecure, it can put highly sensitive corporate data at risk. Our new application reputation feature can help enterprises improve their mobile security posture by eliminating the risk of insecure applications.”