Dive Brief:

• A study by security firm Veracode found that employees who install gambling apps on mobile devices they use for work are putting corporate data stored on those devices at risk. 

• The study found that the average company has more than one gambling application running on employee devices. Some businesses have as many as 35 mobile gambling apps on their network environment.

• Free mobile applications, including gambling ones, often tap device and user information.

Dive Insight:

For the study, Veracode tested several of the most popular gambling apps it detected in corporate environments for potential security risks. It found that critical vulnerabilities contained in the apps could enable hackers to gain access to a phone's contacts, emails, call history and location data, while other apps had access to read, write and delete local files as well as to open network communications with random servers.

To reduce the risk of unauthorized mobile applications leaking sensitive corporate data, companies are advised to "implement application blacklisting policies like those enforced by mobile device management or enterprise mobility management products," Veracode said.