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Report: Half of developers rush apps to market, consumers trust security

Despite an ever-growing stream of information demonstrating the difficulties enterprise companies face securing mobile applications, consumers maintain trust in the security of their mobile applications, a new survey revealed.

The report, conducted by mobile security vendor Bluebox, highlighted the disconnect between consumers and enterprise app developers, as consumers continue to place a high level of trust in mobile apps, even as enterprise app developers admit security is not a core priority.

The survey found 53 percent of developers said they have used shortcuts or put temporary solutions in place in order to get their app out. The survey polled 292 app developers and 422 consumers.

Nearly 50 percent of the developers surveyed said they have rushed an app to market, despite it not being completely ready. According to the report, 96 percent of app developers use third-party frameworks in building their apps.

Bluebox CEO Pam Kostka told SCMagazine.com the approximate timeframe needed to secure a mobile application is six weeks, but called this period “a lifetime” in the mobile app development cycle. As a result, Kostka said, developers are not incentivized to make security a priority and “CISOs are increasingly getting involved in the process.”

Bluebox, founded in 2012, raised a $9.5 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz in June 2012 and raised $18 million in a Series B led by Tenaya Capital in January 2014.

The company has focused on mobile security for enterprise companies, and announced consumer app capabilities in beta this week.

Bluebox co-founder Adam Ely told SCMagazine.com that rogue adware apps like the Android-rooting adware discovered last week, can re-sign applications, strip the original ad-framework, and then re-distribute the app using their own ad network. He explained that the consumer apps protect applications and device in real time, and would protect apps from adware and malware that re-signs and redistributes the application.

On Monday, Blue Coat Systems agreed to acquire Elastica, a Bluebox competitor for $280 million. Microsoft completed its $320 million acquisition of Adallom, another competitor last month.

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