A 2019 security assessment found code-level weaknesses in mobile financial applications, but it did not identify particular banks or insurers and cannot be used to rank today’s apps. The findings, summarized by Dark Reading on April 2, 2019, came from an Aite Group study commissioned by Arxan. Researchers reportedly decompiled applications to inspect their code, exposing different weakness patterns across financial-service categories.
What the 2019 assessment examined
Aite Group researcher Alissa Knight reportedly decompiled the apps in the assessment to reconstruct and inspect their source code. That approach looks for weaknesses embedded in the application itself, including exposed credentials, insecure statements and other implementation flaws that may not be visible during ordinary use.
The Dark Reading account presents app shielding as one defense against attackers conducting similar code inspection. It also frames the issue as a development problem: sensitive applications need security controls built into software engineering and DevOps rather than added only after release.
The summary does not provide the sample size, named applications, numerical vulnerability totals, scoring formula or complete selection methodology. Those omissions prevent an independent calculation of risk or a reproducible ranking from the article alone.
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How reported weaknesses differed by category
| App category | Finding reported in the article | What the evidence does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| Retail banking | Reportedly had the greatest number of critical vulnerabilities in the assessment. | No count, per-app result or current-version conclusion is provided. |
| Auto insurance | Reportedly had the greatest number of severe findings and the most hard-coded private keys, API keys and other secrets. | The summary does not identify an insurer or show how many apps were tested. |
| Banks offering and servicing health savings accounts | Described as the most secure category in the article’s account of the report. | No score, threshold or detailed ranking method appears in the summary. |
| Health insurer mobile payment apps | Placed behind HSA bank apps in the reported relative ranking. | No numerical comparison is available. |
| Credit-card issuer apps | Placed behind health insurer payment apps in that reported ranking. | The article does not establish that every app in the category shared the same security posture. |
The wording matters: retail banking is associated with the largest number of critical findings, while auto insurance is associated with the largest number of severe findings and embedded secrets. “Critical” and “severe” are not interchangeable labels, so the summary does not prove that one category was broadly less safe than the other.
Weaknesses that appeared across sectors
Hard-coded secrets
The article identifies private keys, API keys and other secrets embedded directly in application code, particularly in auto insurance apps. An attacker who extracts an application package may be able to discover such material and use it outside the intended app, depending on the associated permissions and backend controls.
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Hard-coded SQL statements
Hard-coded SQL statements are described as a common code weakness across sectors. Storing database logic in a client application can expose implementation details and may increase the consequences of other input-validation or authorization errors.
Private certificates
Private certificates are also described as common across the examined sectors. Placing private cryptographic material in a distributable app creates a recovery problem: once the package is obtained, the secret may need to be revoked and replaced.
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Why this is not a current app-safety ranking
The report and article date to 2019. Mobile applications, backend services, operating systems and development practices may all have changed since then. Because the summary names categories rather than applications and supplies no current retest, it cannot show whether a particular bank, insurer or card issuer is vulnerable today.
Consumers should therefore not treat the article as evidence that a named financial institution is unsafe—or that an unmentioned institution is safe. The most defensible conclusion is narrower: code inspection found security weaknesses in the examined sample, and the pattern of reported findings varied by category.
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What the findings mean for developers and security teams
Make application security part of delivery
Nathan Wenzler, identified in the article as senior director of cybersecurity at Moss Adams, said: “Making application security an integral part of the development and DevOps processes is critical to creating confidence within the customer base that their money and information is secure, no matter how they choose to manage their banking tasks,”
In practice, that means reviewing mobile packages and their dependencies during development, testing release builds for embedded secrets, and ensuring exposed credentials can be revoked and rotated.
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Assume the client can be inspected
App shielding is presented as a way to raise the cost of reverse engineering and code inspection. It should complement, not replace, server-side authorization, secret management, certificate handling and monitoring. Anything shipped to a user’s device should be treated as potentially obtainable by an attacker.
Design for user confidence without overstating protection
Timur Kovalev, identified as chief technology officer at Untangle, told Dark Reading: “Mobile apps in general lack the necessary security features to protect users data. Even with social engineering and mobile breaches occurring more often, app developers still are not developing apps with security in mind,”
Wenzler added: “While users are comfortable using mobile apps for nearly anything and everything these days, the concerns for securing their money and financial information can make nearly anyone a little hesitant. And maybe with good reason,”
Those comments describe the motivation for stronger engineering practices; they are not measurements of present-day consumer exposure.
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What readers can reasonably take away
- The 2019 Aite Group assessment, commissioned by Arxan and summarized by Dark Reading on April 2, 2019, used decompilation to examine application code.
- Retail banking apps reportedly had the most critical findings, while auto insurance apps reportedly had the most severe findings and embedded keys and secrets.
- Hard-coded SQL statements and private certificates were described as recurring weaknesses across sectors.
- The accessible summary contains no app names, counts, sample size or current retest, so it cannot establish the security of a particular app in 2026.
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