Dive Brief:

• Web and mobile apps used for the holiday shopping season have the potential to cause quite the headache for consumers. In a study of Black Friday-specific mobile applications, digital risk management firm RiskIQ found one in 10 apps in global application stores are "blacklisted as malicious" of the 5,315 that can be found by searching "Black Friday."

• Malicious apps can trick users into downloading malware, revealing login credentials or uploading credit card information to an untrustworthy site.

• Five leading eCommerce brands were especially targeted. Together, they combine for more than 1,950 "blacklisted" URLs that are linked to phishing, malware and spam, according to the report. 

Dive Insight:

Black Friday, and now Cyber Monday, shoppers have a bevy of cybersecurity concerns to contend with, as more companies employ mobile and web apps to enhance the shopping experience. 

Consumers spent more than $5.8 billion over Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year, and it is likely sales will at least reach, and potentially exceed, 2015 numbers. 

"Traditionally there are a lot of phishing attacks against consumers trying to get users to either enter their credit card information or bank information," said Thomas Pore, director of IT and services at Plixer, in an interview with CIO Dive. Clicking on a malicious link from a phishing attack while at work could release ransomware or malware throughout a corporate network.

Whether inside or out of the retail sector, companies will have to ensure network's can mitigate and defend against outside threats.