Mobile apps are eating the world. As they galore, the security and privacy of individual users also becomes vulnerable. Mobile industry, gadgets and Internet of Things are penetrating exponentially into consumer lifestyles, a majority remains a common user and totally ignorant of its ill sides. Most of the users are non tech and highly vulnerable to the threats of technology adaptation.

This security gap demands high investments in this field both in the form of solutions as well as user awareness. Mobile threats e.g. malware, hacked apps, business app frauds etc. are becoming a thrilling activity for the hackers due to common usage of tablets and smart phones rather than PC system.

Hp launched a research report of about 2000 mobile apps from 600+ different companies. Key finding of the report are:

• 97% of applications tested could access at least one private information source

• 86% of applications failed to use simple protections against modern-day attacks

• 75% of applications do not use proper encryption techniques when storing data on a mobile device

• 18% of applications sent usernames and passwords over HTTP, while another 18% implemented SSL/HTTPS incorrectly

Most of the mobile users remain casual towards their cyber privacy and hence fall victim to hacker attacks. The following statistics show a shocking figure of how ignorant a regular mobile user remains to security settings.

According to Norton Cyber Crime Report

• 2/3 of mobile users do not use security solution for their mobile devices

• 30% do not think about the cybercrime when they are online because they do not expect that it can happen to them

• 21% do not take steps to secure their personal information when they are online

• 40% do not use complex password and change them on regular basis

• 44% access their personal emails via free or unsecured Wi-Fi connections

WHAT THEY DO?

• They are extra social at the social media, responding to the unknown people and allowing them to find the vulnerability into personality.

• They normally install apps at their smart phones from unauthentic resources and put their smart phones at high risk.

• They respond to the call/text from unknown numbers and provide a safe way to Trojans to trace them 24/7.

• They do not log out of their social apps and devices after using it.

• They use weak passwords and even share it within their circle.

• They use public and unsecured Wi-Fi connections without considering hacking threats.

• They do not cross check where and what information is going to be stored by the installed apps.

• They are unaware of how and when their private data is being accessed by the apps.

WHAT THEY SHOULD NOT DO:

To create a culture of safe mobile app usage, smart phone owners need to learn the best practices around their security and privacy rights. Following are the PRECAUTIONS that the mobile users should take while using their mobiles:

• Say NO to Social Engineering/ Do NOT fall victim to FRENEMIES

Only accept requests from people within your social network and do not fall victim to frenemies.

• DO NOT install applications from unauthentic resources

Install apps at your smart phone from authentic resources only, and make your browsing and mobile secure. Read the detailed description, recent reviews, app maturity level, and known issues that are mentioned within the app installation screen.

• Shift to PASSPHRASE rather than PASSWORD

“It takes a computer less than a second to crack any eight-character password” according to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. He also advised to shift your thinking from password to PASSPHRASE.

Password considers as key to lock. A bad password is the easiest way to compromise security. Consider the following points while making password

• DO NOT share your passwords over email or social media messaging

• Regularly update your phone access codes or passcodes

• Rather than misspelling a word , try to use the combination of special characters, upper and lower case letters along with Numeric values in PASSPHRASE

• Shift your Password to PASSPHASE having long sentences which are E2R (Easy To Remember) without turning you mad

• LOGOUT

Always log out of data sensitive apps such as social networking and banking applications

• Be Conscious using open WI-FI Connections

While connecting your device to the free or mall Wi-Fi, be conscious. Do not allow Wi-Fi to steal your mobile actions and browsing.

References:

• http://www.corero.com/blog/329-web-application-vulnerability-statistics-report-released.html
• http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/mobility/232601886/the-mobile-device-threat-shocking-mobile-security-stats.htm?pgno=4
• http://www.pcworld.com/article/262017/mobile_security_threats_rise.html
• http://securelist.com/analysis/58265/kaspersky-security-bulletin-2013-overall-statistics-for-2013/
• http://securelist.com/analysis/kaspersky-security-bulletin/67864/kaspersky-security-bulletin-2014-predictions-2015/
• https://www.arxan.com/wp-content/uploads/assets1/pdf/State_of_Mobile_App_Security_2014_final.pdf
• http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/photostory/2240177844/Top-ten-threats-to-mobile-enterprise-security/6/Poor-mobile-authentication-methods#contentCompress
• http://www.cis.syr.edu/~wedu/Research/paper/code_injection_ccs2014.pdf