There’s an app for everything these days but a new study from Hewlett Packard suggests they may all be putting your phone’s security at risk. The report notes the top vulnerabilities among applications include: weak server side controls, insecure data storage, transport security (or insecurity—15 percent of apps sent usernames and passwords over HTTP) and a lack of binary protection. A whopping 86 percent of applications failed to implement simple protections against modern day attacks, which coupled with the 97 percent that used least one private information source, lead to some scary statistics.
“[T]his isn’t about malicious apps designed to steal your data. It’s mostly a function of lazy coding,” says Tony Bradley, in an article about the study in PC World. He notes that the average smartphone user has 26 apps installed, all of which, according to the study, come with a privacy or security concern. Never mind “bring your own device” policies, with this exposure, it’s more like “bring your own dangers.”
