Indian Journal of Computer Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Analyzing the Growing Needs of Users to Employ Hardware and Software Restrictions in Smartphones for Increased Privacy and Data Security


Affiliations
1 Multimedia Specialist, Philco Media, Kottayam, Kerala, India
2 Lecturer (Computer Science), Department of Commerce, Bishop Kurialacherry College for Women, Amalgiri P.O., Kottayam - 686 561, Kerala, India

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


The use of smartphones has become an inevitable part of the lives of common people, as these days almost every day to day activity requires the active use of smartphones for the real world task processing. As the demanding needs of smartphones with the bundled operating system code along with a huge variety of user applications increased, there also exists an evil part hidden within the wide variety of applications that the application developers make use of to gain profit by collecting details about users either as private personal documents or in the form of metadata. As normal users of the system, they may not be always informed or well known about the ways in which these applications work. There also exists a problem where user security is compromised in the form of malicious code. Many government organizations collect and record information about user activity through telecom operators in the name of some backdoor operations they were working without the user’s consent. In this paper we try to focus on the perspectives that a common user needs to be aware of, to make their system more private and secure it from data breeches.

Keywords

Countermeasures, Data Breaches, Data Security, Defense, Malware Attacks, User Privacy.
User
Subscription Login to verify subscription
Notifications
Font Size

  • Mobile Operating System Market Share Worldwide. Statcounter. April 2021. [Online]. Available: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide

  • R. Triggs, “Arm vs x86: Instruction sets, architecture, and all key differences explained,” Android Authority, June 8, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.androidauthority.com/arm-vs-x86-key-differences-explained-568718/

  • E. Engheim, “Why is Apple’s M1 chip so fast?,” Debugger, November 28, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://debugger.medium.com/why-is-apples-m1-chip-so-fast-3262b158cba2

  • J. Turley, “Apple M1 vs. Intel Core i7: The benchmark wars continue,” Electron. Eng. J., February 15, 2021. [Online].Available: https://www.eejournal.com/article/apple-m1-vs-intel-core-i7-the-benchmark-wars-continue/

  • P. Tracy, “Apple M1 vs. Intel CPU: This is the best processor for your laptop,” Laptop. [Online]. Available: https://www.laptopmag.com/amp/news/apple-m1-vs-intel-cpu-this-is-the-best-processor-for-your-laptop

  • J. Hruska,“Current x86 vs. Apple M1 performance measurements are flawed,” ExtremeTech, December 7, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/318020-flaw-current-measurements-x86-versus-apple-m1-performance

  • J. Philip and M. Raju, "Security impact of trusted execution environment in rich execution environment based syst," Indian J. of Comput. Sci., vol. 5, no. 4–5, pp. 26–37, 2020. [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.17010/ijcs%2F2020%2Fv5%2Fi4-5%2F154785

  • J. Philip and M. Raju, “An overview about the security architecture of the mobile operating system iOS,” Indian J. of Comput. Sci., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 13–18, 2019. [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.17010/ijcs%2F2019%2Fv4%2Fi1%2F142412

  • User Experience with Mobile Security and Privacy Mechanisms. July 4, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.qu.tu-berlin.de/fileadmin/fg41/kraus_lydia.pdf

  • T. Mandt, M. Solnik, and D. Wang, “Demystifying the secure enclave processor,” OffCell Res. and Azimuth Security.[Online]. Available: https://www.blackhat.com/docs/us-16/materials/us-16-Mandt-Demystifying-The-Secure-Enclave-Processor.pdf

  • B. Barrett, “The tiny chip that powers up pixel 3 security,” Wired, [Online]. Available: https://www.wired.com/story/google-titan-m-security-chip-pixel-3/

  • R. Triggs, “Will Google’s Titan M make it harder for the ROMing scene?,” 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.androidauthority.com/titan-m-security-chip-915888/

  • C. Hoffman, “Your smartphone has a special security chip. here’s how it works,” 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.howtogeek.com/387934/your-smartphone-has-a-special-security-chip.-heres-how-it-works/

  • X. Xin, “Titan M makes Pixel 3 our most secure phone yet,” 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.blog.google/products/pixel/titan-m-makes-pixel-3-our-most-secure-phone-yet/

  • M. Sabt, M. Achemlal, and A. Bouabdallah, “Trusted execution environment: What it is, and what it is not,” in 14th IEEE Int. Conf. on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Commun., August 2015, Helsinki, Finland. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/Trustcom.2015.357

  • A. P. Felt, E. Ha, S. Egelman, A. Haney, E. Chin, and D.Wagner. “Android permissions: User attention, comprehension, and behavior,” in Proc. of the Eighth Symp. on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). ACM. 2012, p. 3. [Online]. Available: https://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/2012/proceedings/a3_ Felt.pdf

  • S. Garfinkel and H. R. Lipford. “Usable security: History, themes, and challenges,” in Synthesis Lectures on Inform. Security, Privacy, and Trust, 2014, pp. 1–124. Morgan & Claypool. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.2200/S00594ED1V01Y201408SPT011

  • J. Lin, B. Liu, N. Sadeh, and J. I. Hong. “Modeling users’ mobile app privacy preferences: Restoring usability in a sea of permission settings,” in Proc. of the Tenth Symp. On Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). 2014, pp. 199–212. [Online]. Available: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/soups2014/soups14-paper-lin.pdf

  • P. Wijesekera, A. Baokar, A. Hosseini, S. Egelman, D.Wagner, and K. Beznosov, “Android permissions remystified: A field study on contextual integrity,” in USENIX Security Symp. 2015, pp. 499–514.

  • J. Philip and M. Raju, “A formal overview of application sandbox in Android and iOS with the need to secure sandbox against increasing number of malware attacks”, Indian J. of Comput. Sci., vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 32–40, 2019. [Online].Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.17010/ijcs%2F2019%2Fv4%2Fi3%2F146164

  • BBC News, “Edward Snowden: Leaks that exposed US spy programme,” January 17, 2014. [Online]. Available: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-23123964

  • A. Alshehri, A. Hewins, M. McCulley, H. Alshahrani, H. Fu, and Y. Zhu, “Risks behind device information permissions in Android OS,” Commun. and Network, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 219–234, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.4236/cn.2017.94016

  • S. Achleitner and C. Xu, “Android apps leaking sensitive data found on Google play with 6 million U.S. downloads,” November 24, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/android-apps-data-leakage/

  • “Wireless connections and bluetooth security tips, ”[Online]. Available: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/how-protect-yourself-online

  • R. Sobers, “98 Must-Know Data Breach Statistics for 2021,” Varonis, April 16, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.varonis.com/blog/data-breach-statistics/

  • L. Constantin, “One in three organizations suffered data breaches due to mobile devices,” CSP, March 6, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.csoonline.com/article/3353560/one-in-three-organizations-suffered-data-breaches-due-to-mobile-devices.html

  • “Smartphones face high hacking risk in 2020: Report,” The Hindu, January 1, 2020. [Online]. Available:https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/gadgets/smartphones-face-high-hacking-risk-in-2020-report/article30450912.ece

  • “Remote working linked to data breach in 66% Indian firms: Survey,” CISO. in, August 20, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://ciso.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/remote-working-linked-to-data-breach-in-66-indian-firms-survey/77653551

  • The Guardian, “Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach,” [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election


Abstract Views: 181

PDF Views: 0




  • Analyzing the Growing Needs of Users to Employ Hardware and Software Restrictions in Smartphones for Increased Privacy and Data Security

Abstract Views: 181  |  PDF Views: 0

Authors

Jithu Philip
Multimedia Specialist, Philco Media, Kottayam, Kerala, India
Merin Raju
Lecturer (Computer Science), Department of Commerce, Bishop Kurialacherry College for Women, Amalgiri P.O., Kottayam - 686 561, Kerala, India

Abstract


The use of smartphones has become an inevitable part of the lives of common people, as these days almost every day to day activity requires the active use of smartphones for the real world task processing. As the demanding needs of smartphones with the bundled operating system code along with a huge variety of user applications increased, there also exists an evil part hidden within the wide variety of applications that the application developers make use of to gain profit by collecting details about users either as private personal documents or in the form of metadata. As normal users of the system, they may not be always informed or well known about the ways in which these applications work. There also exists a problem where user security is compromised in the form of malicious code. Many government organizations collect and record information about user activity through telecom operators in the name of some backdoor operations they were working without the user’s consent. In this paper we try to focus on the perspectives that a common user needs to be aware of, to make their system more private and secure it from data breeches.

Keywords


Countermeasures, Data Breaches, Data Security, Defense, Malware Attacks, User Privacy.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.17010/ijcs%2F2021%2Fv6%2Fi5%2F166514