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Empowering Mobile Payments: Approov's Security and PCI MPoC Mastery

January 18, 2024

In the ever-evolving landscape of mobile applications, especially those dealing with sensitive financial transactions, security is paramount. Approov, an advanced App and API security solution, takes a multifaceted approach to ensure the integrity of protected APIs, with a focus on the recently introduced Payment Card Industry (PCI) Mobile Payments on COTS (Commercial-off-the-Shelf) devices (MPoC) standard. Read Full Story

Understanding the Security of Mobile Apps in Africa

November 29, 2023

CyLab-Africa researchers partner with mobile security provider for summer collaboration experience Researchers from CyLab-Africa and the Upanzi Network recently partnered with the mobile security provider Approov to explore the security of common financial services apps used across Africa. After surveying 224 popular financial applications, the researchers found that 95 percent of these Android apps exposed secrets that can be used to reveal personal and financial data. Across these applications, approximately 272 million users have the potential to be victims of the security flaws. Read Full Story

Approov Publishes Carnegie-Mellon University CyLab-Africa Report on Mobile App Security in Africa

October 12, 2023

This is a Guest Blog written by the CyLab-Africa team : Theoneste Byagutangaza, Lena Chacha, Trevor Henry Chiboora, Joel Jefferson Musiime and George McGregor from Approov. This week, we published a new report: “The Security Challenges of Financial Mobile Apps in Africa”. This is based on research carried out by a research team from CyLab-Africa, sponsored by Approov. The research reveals an alarming Fintech exposure in Africa – 95% of the apps investigated leak secrets! The full report is published on the Approov website here and is essential reading for any mobile app developers who are planning worldwide deployment. Read Full Story

Security Threats to Mobile Crypto Apps and How to Protect Them

July 28, 2023

The last year has not been great for crypto. Most crypto currencies, including Bitcoin, experienced significant loss of value, and we saw high profile exchanges like FTX collapse. In addition, hackers were actively stealing crypto currency. The blockchain company Chainalysis calculated that $3.8bn was stolen by hackers in 2022. Read Full Story

What is “Bank-Grade Security” and is it Enough?

June 7, 2023

"Bank-grade security" is a term often used to describe a high level of security measures implemented in mobile applications to protect sensitive data, transactions, and user privacy. It implies that the app's security measures are at par with or comparable to the security standards employed by financial institutions, such as banks, which are known for their rigorous security practices. In this post, we will examine what is meant by this term and whether or not you should be comforted by it. Read Full Story

Mobile App Security: Uncovering the Risks of Secret Theft at Runtime

March 23, 2023

This is our second blog highlighting the results of the Approov Threat Lab Report. Read Full Story

Do You Want to Know a Secret? Just Take a Look Inside Top Finance Apps

March 7, 2023

Financial apps have access to valuable and sensitive personal data, so you would think mobile app security would be top-of-mind for financial institutions. But is it? Read Full Story

The State of Mobile App Security in 2022 in Financial Services

August 17, 2022

Introduction and Context This blog provides a snapshot of mobile app security in Financial Services based on an extensive study performed by Osterman Research and published in the Approov-sponsored report “The State of Mobile App Security in 2022”, in July this year. Read Full Story

Hacking Financial APIs - New Report, Familiar Results

January 20, 2022

Alissa Knight’s latest security research report “Scorched Earth” was recently released. In this blog we’ll look at 3 key themes from the report and the immediate mitigations that banks, crypto companies and fintechs should implement. Read Full Story

Fake Apps & Fintechs

September 1, 2021

We have released a short video that demonstrates how fake apps can be used to commit fraud against your business and how Approov can help your organisation to fight back against these fake and/or repackaged apps. Read Full Story