Are you aware of what’s trending in the technology of mobiles today and the security niches that arise out of lack of knowledge on what you use on your mobiles, are you aware of the grayware outbreaks in mobiles, a greatest percentage in mobiles?
It has been discovered according to the 2019 security statistics in line with the Internet Security Report of 2018 that malware is on the rise as a number of new mobile variants introduced are increasing by 54 percent in a year.
This is not helped by the fact that most mobile devices are running on older operating systems (only 20 percent of Android devices are running the newest release).
Despite the rise in mobile malware, a more alarming threat however is one that is posed by grayware; these are apps that appear to be safe but are rich with issues that put mobile users’ privacy at risk. 63 percent of grayware apps leak a device’s mobile number and some other sensitive information on the device like email address and since with android emails are always open, then sensitive information is at risk.
According to Android documentation for app developers, permissions fall into two groups – normal and dangerous.
- Normal permissions – Don’t pose risk to the user’s privacy and are granted automatically by the system to the app.
- Dangerous permissions – Could potentially affect user’s privacy or the device’s normal operation, the user must explicitly agree to grant those permissions.
Looking at a study on how VPN apps ask for dangerous permissions? Specifically, 62 percent of top VPN apps ask for dangerous permissions and will qualify as grayware.
For the more details on the commonly requested permissions for VPN apps, click on the link
Recommendations: - Ensure your running an updated version of the android as attackers target most through outdated android versions.
- While using VPNs, mind the information that you feed in as credential data.
Grayware unlike malware is growing at a rate of 63% and is on a rise due to the usage rate of the mobile apps on market and those under development.
