A stamp of approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn't necessarily mean mobile medical apps are safe from hackers.

 

Some 90 percent of Android healthcare apps have been hacked, according to the latest State of Mobile App Security report from Arxan Technologies, and making matters worse, 22 percent of those apps were FDA-okayed.

 

"The fact that the hacking rate is so high for healthcare apps is indicative of a possible lack of information security training and resources in the healthcare field," an Arxan spokesperson said. Because such apps tend to hold confidential patient information, "these breaches are posing a serious risk to patient safety."

 

[See also: Breach alert: Hackers swipe data of 4.5M.]

 

It's not just Android apps that hackers are interested in, either – 97 percent of the top 100 paid Android apps and 87 percent of the top 100 paid Apple iOS apps have been hacked. And that doesn't even take into account the free apps that have been breached.

 

"As such, these apps must be protected from such attacks before being recommended by physicians," Arxan's spokesperson said. "Otherwise, a continued lack of protection will lead to data compromise and having to safeguard sensitive patient information."

 

Considering that many mHealth developers are turning to apps as tools for patient engagement and agents of ease for practice administrative staff, the potential impact of such hacking mustn't be understated.

 

Key findings from the 2014 Arxan report, the third of its kind, appear in the infographic here.