The use of these rogue applications has become a top security concern for private sector organisations, the security firm has found.
"Most large companies have the security policies and software in place to protect mobile devices on a base level, but only now are they beginning to consider apps as vulnerable to cybercrime", said Paul Vlissidis, technical director at NGS Secure.
"Trends in the mobile application consumer market are negatively and directly impacting businesses because for most UK employees, there is little or no differentiation between business and personal use", he said.
But in comparison with desktop software, said Vlissidis, mobile apps are highly insecure as a result of the speed at which they come to market, their life spans and rules surrounding publication.
"Businesses must ensure employees are aware of the risks of downloading applications to their work handsets, and that they trust the application they are running before submitting information or allowing applications access to files held on other areas of smartphones", he said.
This story was first published by Computer Weekly