Hacking alert over thousands of mobile apps: Flaw in way products store data online leaving users passwords, location and addresses vulnerable to hackers
A flaw in the way thousands of popular mobile applications store data online is leaving passwords, addresses, door codes and location data vulnerable to hackers, researchers claim. The German team of researchers found 56million items of unprotected data in products they studied, including games, social networks, messaging, medical and bank transfer apps. The problem lies in the way those who write and sell the apps authenticate users when storing their data in online databases, said the team from Darmstadt University of Technology. In almost every category we found an app which has this vulnerability in it,' said Siegfried Rasthofer, part of the team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology and Darmstadt University of Technology. Team leader Eric Bodden said the number of records affected 'will likely be in the billions'. Another security researcher working separately, Colombian Jheto Xekri, said he had also found the same flaw. Mos...