Security risks from mobile apps
- Everyone is carrying a smartphone to the office;
- A smartphone is a computer with the capability of communication to remote servers;
- Mobile communication can be done directly through data traffic of telecom carriers , thus corporate firewall is useless on mobile devices;
- The true functions of a mobile app are never limited as what it claims officially;
- Google and Apple app stores are not capable of detecting malicious apps;
- Apps can be controlled remotely in real time from remote servers. Malicious functions can be turned on and off as needed, thus make it harder to be detected.
- Many popular apps are created and owned by adversary regimes, and are not subject to laws of Canada and its allies;
- Apps are able to conduct espionage through audio recording without the awareness of the users;
- Apps are able to collect users' accurate location during office hours, to determine users' workplace, thus to facilitate intelligence analysis by adversary regimes.
- Apps are able to access users' address book entries, send them to remote servers controlled by adversary regimes. With advanced AI and data mining technology, great intelligence information can be obtained.