The present disclosure provides systems and methods for mobile application security classification and enforcement. In particular, the present invention includes a method, a mobile device, and a distributed security system (e.g., a “cloud”) that is utilized to enforce security on mobile devices communicatively coupled to external networks (i.e., the Internet). Advantageously, the present invention is platform independent allowing it to operate with any current or emerging mobile device. Specifically, preventing malicious applications from running on an end user's mobile device is challenging with potentially millions of applications and billions of user devices; the only effective way to enforce application security is through the network that applications use to communicate.