75% of India’s top 100 Android apps contain security risks: Report

A report by leading mobile security testing platform, Appknox, titled “Evidence-based Insights – India’s Top 100 Android Mobile Apps tested for Cybersecurity, ” found that 75% of India’s top 100 Android apps contain security risks.

The research found that some of the most prominent Indian apps lag even the most basic security checks. 79% of the apps were affected by network security misconfiguration, while 78% lacked sufficient code obfuscation. Insufficient obfuscation might lead to threat actors decompiling or reverse-engineering the code.

Further, 42% of the apps had insufficient transport layer protection, which happens when data is sent from the mobile app to the server over unsecured channels.

Appknox had placed all the 100 applications through a rigorous automated testing process of 14 different test cases using its security solutions. These checks help determine essential parameters like how data is being stored by the app, how much is shared and accessible, are payments secure, and the possible loopholes that can lead to data leakages.

“We put together this report so that app developers realize the importance of creating apps with no vulnerabilities,” said Harshit Agarwal, CEO of Appknox.

According to Forbes, India is now the number one country globally in the number of apps installed and usage per month.

Out of the 2,976,112 apps on Google Play, more than 157,313 are from Indian publishers, with Meesho, Hotstar, Flipkart, Shopsy, and PhonePe, among others being the most downloaded apps from Indian publishers.