According to a recent report by Digital.ai, 57% of monitored applications are under attack. The study found no correlation between an app’s popularity and likelihood of being attacked but found Android apps are more likely to be put in unsafe environments (76%) than iOS apps (55%). Android apps are also more likely (28%) to be run with modified code than iOS apps (6%).

According to the report, the pace of tool democratization among threat actors has accelerated. Reverse-engineering tools such as Ghidra and dynamic instrumentation toolkits such as Frida have recently become more sophisticated and popular. The nationalization of attacks has opened up enormous resources for threat actors.

After analyzing results from multiple industry sectors, the study found that gaming (63%) apps and FinServ apps (62%) are the most likely to be attacked. The stakes are high in in the $250B gaming industry. Selling pirated games in grey-market app stores such as Cydia can give hackers direct income. In addition, money can be made in the micro-economies that popular games create and foster. Those who crack the most protected games are often hailed within the gaming community and are considered worthy of respect.

Apps outside of FinServ and gaming such as implantable medical devices, Bluetooth-connected phone apps, retail and more, have a 54% chance of being attacked.

Read the full report here.