UEFA European Championship apps may violate BYOD policies
With Euro 2016 in full swing, football fans are using popular mobile apps to stream content and stay up to date, yet many of those apps could pose security risks to enterprises according to a new study.
If used on employer-issued or employee-owned bring your own device (BYOD) mobiles, many of these popular apps could violate corporate risk policies stated Flexera Software, which carried out the survey.
Said Maureen Polte, vice president of product management at Flexera Software: “CIOs are likely unaware that many popular EURO 2016 apps used by millions of employees all across Europe are able to access very sensitive device functions and data, such as ad networks, location services and tracking, telephony, in-app purchasing, social networking and microphones, to name just a few.
“Enterprises do a great job monitoring the various enterprise apps running on their networks and mitigating risks, however most do not extend their application readiness best practices to their mobile apps; an oversight which could invite unacceptable risk into the organisation,” added Polte.
Flexera Software examined almost 50 popular Apple iOS Euro 2016 media and sporting apps to assess them for potential BYOD risk to organisations. The report found that of the apps tested, 73%, including BTSport, Football365, Foot Mercato, FranceFootball, lequipe, LIVE Score, Onefootball, SkyGo and SO FOOT, support ad networks. Also 69%, including BTSport, Football365, Foot Mercato, FranceFootball, lequipe, Onefootball, SkyGo and SO FOOT, support location services and tracking.
Telephony is supported by 67%, including BTSport, Football365, Foot Mercato, lequipe, LIVE Score, Onefootball, SkyGo and SO FOOT, and 57% support in-app purchasing. Worryingly, 4%, including bet365Wrapper and lequipe, support microphone access.
A further 57%, including BTSport, Football365, Foot Mercato, FranceFootball, lequipe, LIVE Score, Onefootball and SO FOOT, support social networking.
“CIOs need to understand that the behaviours of the mobile apps their employees are using may interact with their corporate systems and data, because not all mobile app developers are trustworthy,” stated Polte.
“This requires a centralised, automated, repeatable application readiness process to identify and test those apps to determine what they do, and whether they comply with or violate the organisation’s BYOD policies.”
To compile the report, Flexera Software identified almost 50 widely used Euro 2016 applications, representing a small sampling of those that can be found in the Apple App Store and that could easily be downloaded by employees to a corporate-issued or BYOD mobile phone.
These apps were tested using AdminStudio Mobile, an application readiness solution that helps organisations identify, manage, track and report on mobile apps, simplify mobile application management, reduce mobile app risk, and address the rapidly growing demand for mobile apps in the enterprise.
