No-one is going to have any sympathy for marketers when their apps get hacked
What will happen when brand apps attack? Not if, but when. Brand apps will turn on customers and fans, exploiting their most private – photos, conversations, transactions, behaviours and financials – and creating a spectacle of brand disasters, launched to the world by marketing departments and their digital agencies. It’s time to prepare, explains Peter Hewett, CEO of Quixxi Security.
This is not paranoid dystopia. It’s reality. Because hackers fish where the fish are, and hack where the vulnerabilities lie.
App attack ‘opportunities’ are growing to more than six billion worldwide by next year. In Australia alone, 90% of the population is exposed. These are the numbers of how many smartphones are in use – each a host for a brand’s app.
It’s obviously a massive opportunity for marketers. Not only are mobiles in just about everyone’s hands. Everyone also looks at them several times a day. People carry them everywhere. And usually sleep next to them too.