Android Mobile Security – An Issue of Future


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INTRODUCTION

Today trend is for small mobile devices and high processing power. A few years ago, the choice was between a wireless mobile phone and a simple PDA [9]. Smartphone a new category of mobile phone combine the best aspects of mobile and wireless technology creates new business tools for user. Different companies design various smartphone for unique purpose. Android smartphone mobile phone becomes popular and as the Android world grows, it becomes an increasingly juicy target for malware. Infected apps have been spotted in various Android app outlets on numerous occasions. The platform is less restricted than Apple's, for example, and with those freedoms sometimes come security dangers.

ATTACKS ON ANDROID

Android is considered as successful software stack consisting of an operating system, middleware and some key applications bundled [10]. Android has the enough potential to become the dominant OS for smartphones around the globe. The problem lies in Android's security architecture, and the proof is that it's easy to build applications that can get access to sensitive operating system resources such as text messages, voice and location [1] based services. Google doesn't check apps before letting their author’s post them on the Android Market [1] so there are chances of uploading fake or malicious application that can harm to the user.The malware has exotic names such as "Zitmo," "DroidDreamLight," "Hong Tou Tou," "DroidKungFu," "YZHCSMS," "Geinimi" and "Plankton [1].

PRECAUTION MEASURE FOR SAFETY

Various precautions must be taken to prevent or put away the intruders and viruses from android smartphone. These precautions must be taken by user of android mobile phone and application developer. Google is relying on third party vendors like Lookout to handle security. Third Parties can do a good job of protecting users, but a large number of Android users don’t even know about the built-in security functions let alone to go out and look for malware protection [5]. It’s important to note that the “auto-answering” feature of the malware can only affect phones running Android versions 2.2 and below, as the MODIFY_PHONE_STATE permission was disabled in Android 2.3 [6]. The users of android mobile should only download apps from trusted websites and be more cautious about unexpected phone behavior such as slowing speed and phone reboot [4].

CONCLUSION

It is concluded that android mobile phone user must take some precaution measure to put away the intruder and viruses. Different types of security measure software, encryption software and ant-viruses software must be used. User can also design own custom software to prevent the attack. Attack can also be prevented by having detail knowledge of mobile phone and its behavioral architecture. Developer can design application by implementing some security measure, inbuilt security classes to design and develop application.