According to Guerra, this isn't just an Android problem. In fact, a big part of the problem is that the distribution model for mobile apps, like the mobile device market itself, is highly fragmented.
"It used to be that companies purchased software from large trusted vendors. In the mobile world, that's gone," he says. "If you look at the top 50 iOS apps, 92% come from different developers."
This wide range of user-selected hardware and software exposes the corporate network to threats like the one outlined by Percoco and Schulte. The problem can be difficult to fix, because in a fragmented marketplace, it's tough to find someone to blame.
"Consumers want free apps, but developers have to monetize somehow. They get a premium for their advertising if they have user data," says Guerra. "Even the developers don't have a tool to analyze what these third parties are doing."
Guerra says he believes that a behavior-based filtering process is the best way for an enterprise to prevent being compromised by mobile apps.
"It's not saying that this app is safe, or this app is unsafe," says Guerra. "It is saying that this app performs these behaviors. We feed the data directly into their MDM or MAM and that way, they can implement enforcement of their policies."
However, as the Bouncer research shows, filtering on only the front end has serious limitations.
"The implications of [the research] are that stores--not just Google Play, but any type of marketplace, even private-enterprise marketplaces--that are doing analysis of applications before they make them available to their end users, if they're just looking at it when they're being submitted, the application may become malicious at a later date," Percoco warns.
Verizon is demoing crowd analytics technology that uses 5G along with AI and mobile edge computing to give stadium operators insights into the flow of fans throughout a venue.
As we move closer to fully realizing the potential of Wi-Fi 7, it becomes evident that the RF, signaling, and throughput tests are not merely procedural checkpoints but the pillars of excellence in wireless communication.
With low earth orbit (LEO) satellites fast becoming the norm and 3GPP unifying telecom standards around the globe, the satellite IoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) sector ought to be looking at a bright horizon. But is this the case?
