Hackers can see your Android data

Cyber criminals may have accessed web-based banking and corporate email apps, along with other data, thanks to a flaw that affects Qualcomm chips in up to 900 million Android tablets and smartphones.

Israeli cyber security firm Checkpoint, which discovered four vulnerabilities in the Qualcomm chips, said that hackers could entice owners of Android devices to download malicious apps and increase the level of privileges in order to see all of the device’s data.

Checkpoint’s cloud and mobile security chief of products, Michael Shaulov said that by being able to access the phone’s memory, cyber criminals could look into encrypted applications to view email and WhatsApp messages or bank passwords as and when they are entered.

Qualcomm Product Security Initiative engineering vice-president, Alex Gantman said that it had provided patches that successfully solved the issues.

Gantman said:

“I take pride in our collaborative relationship with security researchers, and I am always appreciative of community’s efforts to help us harden our products.”

Google said that it appreciated help from the researchers in improving the mobile’s security.

However, the tech giant added:

“Exploitation of these issues depends on users also downloading and installing a malicious application. Our Verify apps and SafetyNet protections help identify, block, and remove applications that exploit vulnerabilities like these.”

Such vulnerabilities are commonplace in this day and age and unfortunately, the workplace is not immune. Business owners need to wake up to the dangers and create more cyber security jobs to counter this modern threat.