In its first Quarterly Fraud Report of 2018, the RSA has revealed that 39% of all fraudulent transactions during the quarter were carried out on mobile apps.
"There has been a sharp rise in the volume of legitimate transactions carried out over mobile apps, so it's only natural that hackers have followed suit in targeting mobile channels for fraud. Unfortunately, many mobile apps fail to build security from the ground up. This means cyber-criminals and fraudsters are able to slip through the cracks, hijacking mobile applications and siphoning off credentials and funds," said Daniel Cohen, director at the RSA Fraud and Risk Intelligence Unit.
The report analyses consumer fraud data for the first quarter of 2018. Since 2015, fraudulent transactions originating from a mobile app increased by 600%, from 5% to 39%. The use of mobile apps to carry out fraudulent transactions has surpassed the use of traditional web browsers for the same objective, which experienced a decrease from 62% to just 35% in the same period.
In addition, 82% of all fraudulent transactions using mobile apps were carried out using burner phones, making it impossible for investigators to identify the fraudsters.
RSA also underlined the increased use of social media by online fraudsters to communicate, trade information, advertise their services, and even create virtual storefronts to sell stolen data. The report also indicate that social media is slowly but steadily replacing the dark web as the top hackers marketplace.
