Proposed Taxonomy of Cybersecurity Risk in Mobile Applications

Abstract

Smartphone devices are rapidly becoming one of the essential part of everyone’s life, users relying on them to maintaineverything from messages, personal files, contacts and social media account to digital banking, online shopping and retailtransactions with the help of dedicated mobile applications. The increase in the number of smartphone users, however, alsoleads to an increase in security threats. Many unethical hackers and cybercriminals have been eager to use these technologiesfor personal gain, such as theft, destruction, plagiarism, and a variety of other things. This study examines various cybersecurityrisks to mobile applications such as mobile banking and wallet apps. This study presents a new taxonomy for mobile applicationssecurity risks. Furthermore a taxonomy classifying the identified cybersecurity risks has been proposed which can cover alltypes of cyberattacks on mobile apps. The study also discuss some useful suggestions to help improve user awareness aboutsecurity aspects in mobile applications.