How safe is your mobile app? Mobile app attacks and defense

Abstract

Usage of mobile phones has increased over the years, all over the world. With the extensive usage of smartphones, it has been confirmed by that most of the smartphone users work in an Android platform as it is an open platform which can be used by anyone to develop applications or introduce malicious activities; Reports suggest that up to 85% of the mobile phones used are in Android platform (Portal, Statistics. Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 1st quarter 2015 (in millions), 2015) [1]. At the least, a smartphone user uses a minimum of 12 applications, which arises the question, “how safe is your mobile?”. This paper focuses on the said problem and provides an insight about some common types of attacks that use the vulnerability in applications and some defense methods and techniques that could be followed to prevent them.