Mobile Application Development - Security Concerns Slowing Development and Adoption

Concerns about security issues are preventing companies from implementing features on mobile applications that are commonly available for the desktop, according to a new Ziff Davis study commissioned by Entrust, Inc. For mobile applications that feature transaction-based capabilities, these concerns are particularly acute.

More than 50 percent of the companies surveyed that had not deployed transactional applications ranked security as one of their top three concerns, the other two being cost and ease-of-use. More than 40 percent of companies that had deployed these applications continued to rank security as a key concern.

The survey also revealed that mobile applications as a class have only about a third of the functions and capabilities available to analogous desktop applications.

"While the use of mobile applications continues to gain momentum, most still lack the same functionality as traditional Web-based services and offerings," said Entrust President and CEO Bill Conner. "One of the primary reasons for limiting their access stems from concerns about security. Strong authentication is a key element to properly securing any mobile application -- an important step to moving us past the norm of weak [security that is based on] usernames and passwords."

Security is not only a concern to the businesses that deploy mobile applications. Users worry about it too. According to the survey, 50 percent of businesses that have already deployed transactional mobile applications feature security very prominently in the messaging around their products and services.

The Entrust survey was carried out by Ziff Davis in conjunction with The Strategy Group. Data was collected from December 2009 to January 2010 via a random sampling of IT buyers with firms that employed more than 100 personnel.