Neil Daswani, CTO of a security firm Dasient, has found that about 8% Android applications are leaking private information.
According to Neil, his team of researchers have studied around 10,000 Android applications and in that about 800 have been leaking private information of the user to an unauthorized server. Researchers have also found some apps sending unwanted text messages.
Neil is scheduled to present his full findings at the Black Hat conference which starts on 30th July, 2011.
Reason?
The malware problems on Android have become high because of the lack of regulations in the applications that get into the Android market. These problems could have been avoided if the user reads the permission requirements of the applications. But in reality how many of the users read the permission requirements before downloading?? I don’t, Do you??
On the other hand, lack of rules does have it’s advantages — developers can build their own application without worrying about Google i.e. it will accept the application or not.
What Google Should Do?
Google needs to take some effective steps to avoid this, such as it should make approval of the application as a mandatory requirement before the application enters into the market. A basic security check is needed unlike a complicated one over at Apple’s App Store.
If Google doesn’t take any measures then the platform will be killed. We hope Google doesn’t allow it to that extent.
