UAE mobile App alert: Passwords leaking

Zscaler, a player in secure cloud gateway solutions, announced the results of an analysis from ThreatLabZ, the company’s security research arm, which reveals that up to 10 per cent of mobile apps expose user passwords and login names, 25 per cent expose personally identifiable information and 40 per cent communicate with third parties.

There are over one million mobile applications, and more than 1,500 new apps being released every week.

Users who download these apps, even from trusted sources, assume security measures are built in.

However, the research from Zscaler ThreatLabZ shows that is not always the case.

The ThreatLabZ team claims to have analysed hundreds of applications, and found that many popular apps leave user names and passwords unencrypted, while others are insecurely sharing personal information — such as names, email addresses and phone numbers — as well as communicating with third parties, including advertisers.

“App stores have strict guidelines about which logos and colors developers can use, yet application security remains largely unenforced,” said Michael Sutton, vice president of Security Research at Zscaler.

The analysis was done using Zscaler Application Profiler (ZAP).

Application Profiler

 

MUST READ:

A robot that helps you stay in safe environs… for just Dh364

 

 Apple's mini flop: Few takers for $329 iPad