Halloween may be long gone but according to some new reports, the Zombie Apps are still haunting your companies mobile security. According to Domingo Guerra, co-founder and president of Appthority,"Zombie apps, also known as dead apps, are mobile applications that have been removed from the app store and continue to live on millions of employee devices." These apps are considered zombie apps because they do not update to fix bugs, produce new content or rank on any of the app stores lists. These apps have even been removed from the app store but still live on your mobile device. In fact, the only way to discover these zombie apps are to search for them specifically by name, or for a specific type of app.
Ranking in specific categories makes it harder for apps to rank in a list. Categories such as Business are dominated by a few apps making it harder for new apps to rank in that category list. New coming apps tend to categorize themselves in the Productivity and Finance categories because there is less competition for rankings. The Games category has an 80% zombie app rate. The more the app store grows the more the zombie app rate grows.
According to Appthority 1 in 4 mobile devices in the enterprise have at least one zombie app installed. To prevent the threat of zombie apps you should make sure all the devices on your network are up to date, they delete unused apps and update apps that they use consistently. If you want to take it further have employees make sure their apps are still offered in the app store.