Digital.ai Report Finds AI-Driven Attacks on Apps Are Rising
Summary
Digital.ai’s 2026 report says attacks affected 87% of monitored client-facing apps, up from 55% in 2022. It also reports a narrowing iOS-Android attack-rate gap and rising rates for automotive and medical-device apps.
Key points
- Digital.ai reports that the share of monitored client-facing apps facing attacks rose from 55% in 2022 to 87% in 2026.
- The report says the iOS app attack rate reached 97% of the Android rate in 2026, narrowing a gap that was larger in 2023.
- Automotive and medical-device app attack rates rose steeply from 2025 to 2026; medical-device apps had an eight-percentage-point increase.
- One Digital.ai customer recorded a platform-integrity attack on an app within one hour and 56 minutes of its app-store release.
- The report attributes these trends to AI-assisted reverse engineering, exploit generation, and dynamic analysis, and urges defenders to strengthen app security from launch.
Article Details
- Publisher
- SecurityWeek
- Report Period
- 2022–2026; vertical attack-rate comparison covers 2025–2026
- Scope
- Digital.ai’s analysis of attacks against client-facing apps, including comparisons across iOS, Android, and industry verticals.
- Key Statistics
- The share of client-facing apps monitored by Digital.ai that were under attack increased from 55% in 2022 to 87% in 2026.
- In 2023, iOS apps faced half the attack rate of Android apps; in 2026, the iOS rate was 97% of the Android rate, according to the report.
- Medical device app attack rates increased by 8 percentage points, as reported by Digital.ai.
- One Digital.ai customer recorded a platform integrity attack on its application 1 hour and 56 minutes after the app became available in a store.
- Recommendations
- Treat all apps as primary targets and allocate security budgets accordingly.
- Make geographic distance from threats an explicit assumption, examine it, and stop relying on it as a security measure.
- Ensure applications are built to defend themselves from the moment they become available in an app store.
- Develop and use secure defensive agentic AI to counter attackers’ use of agentic AI.