As organizations race to deliver apps at an unprecedented pace, the rise of freely available AI tools with sophisticated capabilities has made it easier than ever for threat actors to effortlessly reverse-engineer, analyze, and exploit applications at an alarming scale.
A new report from Digital.ai shows that 83 percent of applications are under constant attack, a nearly 20 percent increase from last year, with attack rates surging across all industries.
The most significant growth in attacks is in telecoms (91 percent), financial services (87.5 percent), automotive (86 percent), and healthcare (78.5 percent). While Android apps have historically been targeted more often (90.4 percent), the gap has narrowed as iOS attacks have increased (88.1 percent), with the rise in jailbreaking and advanced exploitation techniques.
Derek Holt, CEO at Digital.ai, says, “We live in an app-first world that is shaping our lives, dominating brands, and transforming daily interactions between businesses and consumers. For enterprises, apps represent a gainful bridge to their consumers and employees, but for threat actors, these apps represent lucrative targets. Today, we see more attackers expanding their focus to target not just flagship apps but secondary apps, plugins, add-ons, and more. As AI exponentially increases the capabilities of threat actors, businesses must dramatically increase their ability to protect and monitor all applications against reverse engineering, tampering, and man-in-the-middle attacks. Delivering applications without these security protections is like leaving your front door unlocked and wide open.”
The report also finds that reverse-engineering tools such as Frida, Ghidra, etc. continue to proliferate and attract large communities of users likely to share ideas, tips, and tricks.
The growing attack surface not only increases the total number of attacks due to incomplete security coverage but also provides fertile ground for threat actors to thrive. Both white-hat and black-hat hackers typically learn by doing, and the rapidly escalating number of apps offer ample opportunities to hone their skills.
The full report is available from the Digital.ai site.
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