Beware Android Users! 100K Android Apps Make You Vulnerable

The company examined more than 400,000 Android apps and found that 72 per cent use at least one high-risk permission.

Monday, November 05, 2012:  Are you one of those who keep clicking ‘Allow’ while downloading an app without thinking too much? Well, you could be at risk. Bit9, a security vendor has termed 100,000 applications in Google Play as questionable or suspicious. The way they define their doubts is the way these apps request permissions, categorisation of the application, user rating, number of downloads and the reputation of the application's publisher. 

The company examined more than 400,000 Android apps and found that 72 per cent use at least one high-risk permission and 42 per cent access your GPS location data, including wallpapers, games and utilities. Thirty one per cent gain access to your phone calls or phone numbers and 26 per cent access personal data, such as contacts and e-mail; and 9 percent use permissions that can cost the user money, eWeek reported.

According to the company report, “Our research shows that 26 percent of apps in Google Play have access to personal information such as contacts and email, and in our survey, 96 percent of employers, who permit personal devices to access their networks, allow employees to connect to company email and contacts. So as more companies allow their employees to access their organizational data from personal devices, employers must recognise the threats to their intellectual property posed by unmonitored devices.”

Most users do not pay close attention to the permissions applications are requesting, Harry Sverdlove, CTO of Bit9, told eWEEK. In addition, the problem is compounded by the fact that allowing permissions is an all-or-nothing proposition if a user wants a particular app, he said.  

Source: news.efytimes.com