industryopinion
How Trustworthy are Apps on App Stores?
Burak Agca, Security Engineer at Lookout explores the topic of vulnerable apps.
T
ablets and smartphones enable us to have the world at our fingertips, something that continues to expand with new mobile applications becoming available every day. While
many of them enrich our lives, some are incredibly dangerous — both intentionally and unintentionally. In fact, hundreds of malicious apps are downloaded every day, containing malware and vulnerabilities that expose our most sensitive and personal data. Just recently, several malicious photo editing apps were discovered on the Google Play store with over 500,000 downloads. Tese incidents highlight the need for increased education around mobile apps to help users stay safe.
advantages and are increasingly turning to third-party apps and app stores. With the rise in malware and exploitation of vulnerabilities
“Hundreds of malicious apps
Which apps are trustworthy? When looking at the trustworthiness of apps, you need to consider two different kinds of apps: official apps and third-party apps. Official apps are those developed by the platform creators of iOS or Android, or the manufacturer of the device the app runs on, while third-party apps are not. It can be argued that official apps, sometimes referred to as ‘first-party apps’, are typically trustworthy. Tese apps are rarely malicious, with apps centres such as Apple and Google putting checks in place to filter out malicious apps. For example, last year, Apple removed 1,200 official apps embedded with a malicious Chinese SDK from the App Store. When this number is put in the context of the 4 million apps annually available on the official App Store, the actual percentage of untrustworthy apps is reasonably low. However, third-party apps are less trustworthy as they are
are downloaded every day”
and permissions, mobile devices have become a hotbed for cyber activity and threatens both individuals and organisations. As many of us continue to use these devices for both personal and work purposes, mobile security becomes critical. Users must begin to prioritise securing their devices personally, while industry organisations must focus on patching vulnerabilities, securing devices in the manufacturing stages, and keeping a close eye on the soſtware and apps available on devices.
How to stay safe while using mobile applications
Use official app stores and apps: Where possible, try to only download apps from official app stores, such as the Apple App Store and the Google Play store. By avoiding
third-party stores, users can bypass a lot of malicious apps. However, malicious third-party apps still exist on official stores. Terefore, before downloading any app, users should do their due diligence: research the app online and look for reviews from other users and other trusted sources such as technology and information security publications.
downloaded from unofficial app stores which have less stringent regulations, and they can also demand that users connect to another service in order to access profile details, such as connecting to a user’s Facebook. Tese apps provide risks as they oſten receive permission to access users’ sensitive information, which can then be used to create duplicate accounts, steal identities, hack other accounts, and get access to sensitive images or videos. Unfortunately, during the pandemic, the use of third-party apps increased as the general population became more educated on mobile technology. Tird-party apps can also be extremely appealing to users as they usually offer more features than those found on the official app store, and they are typically free. Terefore, users are drawn in by these
14 | February 2022
Keep your device up-to-date: If a user has downloaded a malicious app they should try to prevent any damage the app can do. It is good practice to keep devices up to date regularly and restart it weekly to ensure all security updates and patches are automatically installed. Platform owners and app developers are constantly patching out vulnerabilities, which means keeping both a mobile devices’ operating system and all its apps up to date provides two barriers for extra levels of security. Download security soſtware: Security best practices are a good start in protecting yourself and your organisation. But dedicated mobile security should also be deployed to ensure no gaps are leſt for attackers to exploint. With breaches happening constantly, we’re constantly bombarded by phishing attacks. In this event, and as a general rule, it is advised that mobile users should download anti-phishing soſtware that secures you from phishing attacks coming from all channels, such as SMS, email, text messages, apps and web pages.
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