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Smartphone Security concern.

Covergirl
Resolved

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Posted February 18, 2011 at 1:02PM

I installed Amazon Kindle for Android the other day and I had to enter my Amazon logon details i.e. email address/username and Password.

I only get 3 books available to read despite the blurb which says "thousands of free ebooks and over 100 newspapers and magazines". That's not really the issue.

I have the following concerns:

What is to stop some (crooked) Android app developer creating something that appears to be a genuine app but is just a user name & password harvesting engine for a popular site?

There doesn't appear to be any controls in place when you install an app - just click an app, download and install in one easy step.

Anyone any comments?

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Chris the Ancient

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Posted February 19, 2011 at 10:51AM

I would be *very* tempted to change my Amazon/Kindle details *very* quickly and inform Amazon what has happened.

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Forum Editor

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Posted February 19, 2011 at 12:04PM

is such that no application can, by default, obtain permission to perform any operations that would adversely impact other applications, the operating system, or the user.

If an application wants access to user-specific data it is forced to ask the operating system when it is installed,at which point you will be prompted for your consent. If no permission is sought, Android will not allow the action - whatever it might be - to continue. If an application tries to access data, or send anything from the device without user permission it will be stopped.

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KremmenUK

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Posted February 22, 2011 at 7:08AM

I was reading an article recently that reckoned that smartphones were likely to be the next big targets for the virus writers.

As they are used for online banking and other valuable activities and currently have no AV to talk about, they are a good target apparently.

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