Mobile Security: Threats and Best Practices

Paweł Weichbroth,Łukasz Łysik,Quanzhong Li

doi:10.1155/2020/8828078

Abstract

Communicating mobile security threats and best practices has become a central objective due to the ongoing discovery of new vulnerabilities of mobile devices. To cope with this overarching issue, the goal of this paper is to identify and analyze existing threats and best practices in the domain of mobile security. To this extent, we conducted a literature review based on a set of keywords. The obtained results concern recognizable threats and established best practices in the domain of mobile security. Afterwards, this outcome was put forward for consideration by mobile application users (n = 167) via a survey instrument. To this end, the results show high awareness of the threats and their countermeasures in the domain of mobile applications. While recognizing the risks associated with physical and social factors, the majority of respondents declared the use of built-in methods to mitigate the negative impact of malicious software and social-engineering scams. The study results contribute to the theory on mobile security through the identification and exploration of a variety of issues, regarding both threats and best practices. Besides this, this bulk of up-to-date knowledge has practical value which reflects in its applicability at both the individual and enterprise level. Moreover, at this point, we argue that understanding the factors affecting users’ intentions and motivations to accept and use particular technologies is crucial to leverage the security of mobile applications. Therefore, future work will cover identifying and modeling users’ perceptions of the security and usability of mobile applications.

Highlights

Recent years have shown a significant increase in the popularity and ubiquity of mobile devices among users all around the globe [1]. ese devices, based on a specific operating system, enable users to install a vast variety of applications, commonly referred to as “apps,” from online sources called markets: Apple App Store, and Google Play [2]. e aforementioned apps are the essence of smartphones, enriching their functionality and enhancing the everyday lives of their users. e app markets allow users to perform a quick search and installation of new apps, but at the same time, they are a source of different kinds of malware disguised as normal apps
E self-administered, anonymous form was disseminated by e-mail among mobile application users and published on forum groups available for students of the Gdansk University of Technology (GUT) and the Wroclaw University of Economics (UE). erefore, we applied convenience sampling, a nonprobability sampling, where members are willing to voluntarily participate in a study
Twelve percent of the users used a pattern lock method that relies on a preselected pattern on a grid of dots to unlock the mobile device. e second biometric method, namely, facial recognition, based on “who the user is,” was claimed to be used by over ten percent (10.2%) of the users. e “old standby” password was rarely used, as only 4.8% of users pointed to this method

Summary

Introduction

Recent years have shown a significant increase in the popularity and ubiquity of mobile devices among users all around the globe [1]. ese devices, based on a specific operating system, enable users to install a vast variety of applications, commonly referred to as “apps,” from online sources called markets: Apple App Store, and Google Play [2]. e aforementioned apps are the essence of smartphones, enriching their functionality and enhancing the everyday lives of their users. e app markets allow users to perform a quick search and installation of new apps, but at the same time, they are a source of different kinds of malware disguised as normal apps. Ese devices, based on a specific operating system, enable users to install a vast variety of applications, commonly referred to as “apps,” from online sources called markets: Apple App Store, and Google Play [2]. E app markets allow users to perform a quick search and installation of new apps, but at the same time, they are a source of different kinds of malware disguised as normal apps. E mobile revolution has empowered and influenced users to move almost all of their everyday operations into the mobile environment and so-called mobile applications. We can observe rapid growth in the domains of both mobile developers and users. Mobile devices are treated by their users as very personal tools, mainly used to facilitate everyday operations, but they serve to store very sensitive personal information [4]. As a result of aggressive competition among application providers, we can observe more and more advanced and customized applications appearing on the market, resolving complex problems. ese applications profoundly change a user’s behavior by facilitating their day-to-day transactions [5,6,7,8]

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