Eskenzi PR ad banner Eskenzi PR ad banner
  • About Us
Thursday, 30 March, 2023
IT Security Guru
Eskenzi PR banner
  • Home
  • Features
  • Insight
  • Events
    • Most Inspiring Women in Cyber 2022
  • Topics
    • Cloud Security
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber Warfare
    • Data Protection
    • DDoS
    • Hacking
    • Malware, Phishing and Ransomware
    • Mobile Security
    • Network Security
    • Regulation
    • Skills Gap
    • The Internet of Things
    • Threat Detection
    • AI and Machine Learning
    • Industrial Internet of Things
  • Multimedia
  • Product Reviews
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Features
  • Insight
  • Events
    • Most Inspiring Women in Cyber 2022
  • Topics
    • Cloud Security
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber Warfare
    • Data Protection
    • DDoS
    • Hacking
    • Malware, Phishing and Ransomware
    • Mobile Security
    • Network Security
    • Regulation
    • Skills Gap
    • The Internet of Things
    • Threat Detection
    • AI and Machine Learning
    • Industrial Internet of Things
  • Multimedia
  • Product Reviews
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
IT Security Guru
No Result
View All Result

Free mobile apps reveal personal details

by The Gurus
January 7, 2014
in Editor's News
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Free applications may offer premium content at no cost, but they often require personal information to be surrendered.
 
According to Michael Sutton, director of security research at ZScaler, those privileges may allow a user to be monitored, and sensitive information potentially viewed and compromised. In the case of the owner of a company-owned device being allowed to download applications, they may download a free application that could monitor and access connections.
 
Sutton said that users should assume you are being watched if you choose to download free applications or apps from “unofficial” app stores, as these are set up to harvest details. “People need to be aware of this stuff and I don’t think that they are,” he said.
 
“A free app wants to deliver meaningful advertisements, so the app will grab whatever it can to track that device, not the person, and if the same advertising SDK is used on many apps it can track that same device. So it can create a profile of me and deliver meaningful ads. Some people don’t care about that, but some people don’t like it at all as it tracks me and my behaviour.”
 
According to a list of the most popular apps by Global Web Index, these are social networks which require personal or geo-location data. “The top ten apps will not be doing anything worse than number 10,000 or number 20,000,” said Sutton.
 
“Most of what we see that is malicious is not on official app stores; everything malicious comes from third party stores. The majority are fake or cloned versions, and the majority of what they do is SMS fraud.”
 
According to research released last month by ZScaler, the Android malware MouaBad.P has the ability to read, write, send and receive SMS messages. “Forcing Android applications to initiate calls to premium phone numbers controlled by the attackers is a common revenue generation scheme that we see, particularly in Android application distributed in third party Android app stores,” the research said.
 
Sutton claimed that its analysis of apps shows common themes across privacy as apps are often aggressive in terms of the user data that they want access to, and it is often because they are free apps. “They track user information because the advertisers want that.”
 
As ZScaler detailed in August, privacy-related data that is collected typically includes the Device UDID; personal identification information; SMS and call activity and the ability to write to external storage.

FacebookTweetLinkedIn
ShareTweetShare
Previous Post

Daily News Digest – 6th January 2013

Next Post

11 Things IT Should Be Doing (But Isn’t)

Recent News

cybersecurity training

Only 10% of workers remember all their cyber security training

March 30, 2023
Pie Chart, Purple

New API Report Shows 400% Increase in Attackers

March 29, 2023
Cato Networks delivers first CASB for instant visibility and control of cloud application data risk

Cato Networks Recognised as Leader in Single-Vendor SASE Quadrant Analysis

March 29, 2023
Outside of cinema with advertising

Back and Bigger Than Ever! The Inside Man Season 5 Takes a Stab at Power Hungry Adversaries

March 29, 2023

The IT Security Guru offers a daily news digest of all the best breaking IT security news stories first thing in the morning! Rather than you having to trawl through all the news feeds to find out what’s cooking, you can quickly get everything you need from this site!

Our Address: 10 London Mews, London, W2 1HY

Follow Us

© 2015 - 2019 IT Security Guru - Website Managed by Calm Logic

  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Features
  • Insight
  • Events
    • Most Inspiring Women in Cyber 2022
  • Topics
    • Cloud Security
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber Warfare
    • Data Protection
    • DDoS
    • Hacking
    • Malware, Phishing and Ransomware
    • Mobile Security
    • Network Security
    • Regulation
    • Skills Gap
    • The Internet of Things
    • Threat Detection
    • AI and Machine Learning
    • Industrial Internet of Things
  • Multimedia
  • Product Reviews
  • About Us

© 2015 - 2019 IT Security Guru - Website Managed by Calm Logic

This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience.

Privacy settings

Privacy Settings / PENDING

This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. You may change your settings at any time. Your choices will not impact your visit.

NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.

GDPR Compliance

Powered by Cookie Information