EURO 2016 Mobile Apps May Pose More Risks to Companies Beyond Employee Distraction

UEFA European Championship apps may violate Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policies

Maidenhead, U.K. – June 21, 2016 – With EURO 2016 in full swing, football fans around the world are watching 24 teams play 51 games now through July 10. And millions of those fans are leveraging popular mobile apps to stream content and stay up to date – apps that could pose security risks to enterprises. According to a new report, “Will Companies be Shown a Yellow Card during EURO 2016?”, if used on employer-issued or employee-owned BYOD devices, many of these popular apps could violate corporate risk policies.

“CIOs are likely unaware that many popular EURO 2016 apps used by millions of employees all across Europe are able to access very sensitive device functions and data – such as ad networks, location services & tracking, telephony, in-app purchasing, social networking and microphones – to name just a few,” said Maureen Polte, Vice President of Product Management at Flexera Software. “Enterprises do a great job monitoring the various enterprise apps running on their networks and mitigating risks – however most do not extend their Application Readiness best practices to their mobile apps – an oversight which could invite unacceptable risk into the organisation.”

The report found that of the almost 50 popular Apple iOS EURO 2016 apps tested[1]:

• 73 percent, including BTSport, Football365, Foot Mercato, FranceFootball, lequipe, LIVE Score, Onefootball, SkyGo and SO FOOT, support Ad Networks.
• 69 percent, including BTSport, Football365, Foot Mercato, FranceFootball, lequipe, Onefootball, SkyGo and SO FOOT, support Location Services & Tracking.
• 67 percent, including BTSport, Football365, Foot Mercato, lequipe, LIVE Score, Onefootball, SkyGo and SO FOOT, support Telephony.
• 57 percent, including BTSport, Football365, Foot Mercato, FranceFootball, lequipe, Onefootball and SO FOOT, support In-app Purchasing.
• 57 percent, including BTSport, Football365, Foot Mercato, FranceFootball, lequipe, LIVE Score, Onefootball and SO FOOT, support Social Networking.
• 4 percent, including bet365Wrapper and lequipe, support accessing the Microphone.

“CIOs need to understand that the behaviours of the mobile apps their employees are using may interact with their corporate systems and data – because not all mobile app developers are trustworthy,” added Polte. “This requires a centralised, automated, repeatable Application Readiness process to identify and test those apps to determine what they do, and whether they comply with or violate the organisation’s BYOD policies.”

To compile the report, Flexera Software identified almost 50 widely used EURO 2016 applications, representing a small sampling of those that can be found in the Apple App Store and that could easily be downloaded by employees to a corporate-issued or BYOD device. These apps were tested using AdminStudio Mobile, an Application Readiness solution that helps organisations identify, manage, track and report on mobile apps, simplify mobile application management, reduce mobile app risk, and address the rapidly growing demand for mobile apps in the enterprise.

[1] The apps tested were: 888sport, AppPublishing, bet365Wrapper, Betfair, Betfred, betscores, BetVictor, Betway Sports, BTSport, bwinSportsbookCOM, Coral Mobile, direct, EM, EM2016, ESPN UK, Euro2016 – Prod, EurosportPlayer, FF.fr, FFF_2016_iOS, Foot Mercato, Football365, Forza, FranceFootball, Interwetten, Ladbrokes, lequipe, LFoTVApp, LIVE Score, M6VideoBox, Mobile, Mobile Bet, My Bet Apps, myCANAL, MyLequipe, MyTF1, Onefootball, Paddy Power, RAN, ScoreCentre, SkyBet, SkyGo, SO FOOT, Sport, Sport1, Sportschau, Stan James, Team Stream, Tipico Sports and William Hill.