The mobile threat landscape is shifting, with new app vulnerabilities and threat vectors emerging, according to Appthority's second Q2 2015 Enterprise Mobile Threat Report.

The report shows enterprises are depending more on mobile solutions for increased productivity, and adopting Bring Your Own Apps (BYOA) and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies to protect against corporate security and privacy risks.

However, enterprises still need help understanding mobile security, Appthority says.

"Mobile technology is changing at lightning speed and enterprises need help navigating the rapidly evolving mobile threat landscape," says Domingo Guerra, Appthority president and co-founder.

“We uncovered some surprising trends related to malware, data sharing across geographic borders, and the lesser known but very prevalent threat of dead and stale apps."

In the Q2 2015 Enterprise Mobile Threat Report, Appthority analysed security and risky behaviours in three million apps and assessed how these risks are impacting enterprise environments.

The report covers iOS and Android apps found on both BYOD and enterprise-owned devices.

Key findings include:

Enterprise data crossing international borders: Appthority mapped the geographic flow of enterprise data and discovered that apps are sending PII (personal identifiable information) and other sensitive information all over the globe, often without the enterprise's knowledge.

The top iOS apps sent data to 92 different countries while the top Android apps sent data to 63 different countries.

The risk of the third party library: Overstretched enterprise app development teams increasingly rely on third party libraries and SDKs.

With no policy in place to analyse mobile app security, enterprise data is put at risk when one of those popular third party packages carries a major vulnerability, says Appthority.

Zombie apps, a threat that won't die: Zombie apps are apps that have been revoked by the app store and are no longer receiving security updates.

App stores are under no regulatory obligation to inform users of revoked apps, and Appthority's research shows that 100% of enterprises surveyed have zombie apps in their environments, leaving the door open for cybercriminals and other security threats to access sensitive data.

"The ongoing threat of zombie apps and stale apps continues to be an 'under the radar' threat to the enterprise," says Guerra.

"The solution to closing this threat window is really two-fold: app stores need to revamp their policy to include a mechanism for alerting end users that an app on their device has been revoked, and end users need increased education about the importance of making updates to their mobile apps as soon as they are available," he says.