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Monday 22 October 2012

Android operating system applications 'leak' individual details

Millions of individuals are using Android operating system applications that can be deceived into exposing individual information, analysis indicates.

Scientists examined 13,500 Android operating system applications and found almost 8% did not protect banking account and public networking logins.

These applications did not apply standard struggling systems, allowing "man-in-the-middle" attacks to reveal information that passes back and forth when devices connect with websites.

Google has yet to thoughts on the analysis and its conclusions.

Researchers from the protection group at Leibniz School of Hanover and the information technology department at the Philipps School of Marburg examined the most popular applications in Google Play store.

By creating a bogus wi-fi hot spot and using a specially created attack tool to spy on the information the applications sent via that route, the researchers were able to:

    catch sign in information for accounts, email services, public networks and corporate networks
    turn off protection programs or deceive them into labelling secure applications as infected
    provide pc code into the information flow that made applications carry out specific commands

An enemy could even re-direct a request to transfer funds, while making it look to the app user like the deal was continuing the same.

Some of the applications examined had been downloadable an incredible number of times, the researchers said.

And a follow-up study of 754 individuals indicates customers could battle to spot when they were at risk.

"About half of the members could not assess the protection state of a web browser period correctly," the researchers had written.

"Most significantly, analysis is needed to study which counter-measures offer the right combination of functionality for designers and customers, protection benefits and economic rewards to be implemented on a extensive."

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