Widespread overconfidence in mobile app security is driving a fundamental shift in organisational priorities, new research from Guardsquare has found.

While 93% of organisations believe their current protections are sufficient, the reality that 62% suffered mobile app breaches in the past year – an average of nine incidents each – is driving a move toward more proactive, comprehensive security strategies that balance development speed with robust protection.

The pressure to accelerate release cycles compounds this blind spot, with 71% of organisations admitting speed has compromised mobile app security.

“The data is clear, and the perceived trade-off between speed and security is a false choice that is costing organisations,” said Roel Caers, CEO of Guardsquare.

“When developers are under immense pressure to release new features, and security is seen as a roadblock, they are forced to sacrifice protection for time-to-market. This reactive, fire-fighting approach is unsustainable. What’s needed is a proactive, integrated strategy where security is an enabler, not a hindrance.”

The report found that almost 70% of organisation do not use obfuscation to protect their mobile apps, and 60% lack Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP), leaving their aps vulnerable to both static and dynamic analysis.

Challenging a long-held industry myth, the report found that more than 70% of organisations believe that iOS apps pose a moderate or higher level security risk.

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The impacts of security incidents extend beyond the average reported cost, the report found. More than half of respondents (54%) reported application downtime, nearly half (48%) experienced data leakage, and 41% suffered a loss of consumer trust.

“As organisations face pressure to develop feature-rich applications that can be easily used from any device, attackers often target vulnerabilities in mobile applications,” said Melinda Marks, Practice Director, cybersecurity, for Enterprise Strategy Group.

“To stay ahead of threats and attacks, security teams need to take a proactive approach to mobile application security with the right tools and processes incorporated into development workflows to help developers optimize efficiency and security as they release robust applications.”