Is that Convenient Local Android App a Trojan Horse?

The explosion of mobile devices and particularly the Android Operating System has spurred breathtaking innovations in the app space. Businesses, technologists and professionals are excitedly experimenting with apps as a new and useful way to coordinate, connect and build networks.

You can now find an app to help you with almost any activity you could imagine – whether help was needed or not. Forget the app that will help design the optimal walking route/schedule; there is an app that will help you optimize your dog-walks.

In the midst of this storm of ingenuity, we are starting to see the emergence of local apps, or apps that are handcrafted to suit the needs of small groups. Here in Atlanta, Whitty Apps recently developed an app for a school board, which helps a band instructor coordinate pick-up times with parents.

The problem was: band practice would sometimes go overtime, and because it was the last class of the day, the instructor’s tardiness was forcing parents to wait in the parking lot before they could pick up their children. The ‘Whitty’ app allows the band instructor to send an instant notification to parents when the practice will really end. This and a slue of other useful apps are probably inundating your phone, but not all of them are safe.

Be Careful with New Apps

Hackers are increasingly targeting mobile devices as a means to steal sensitive information, and even legitimate companies are utilizing the Android free market to capture consumer data, which they can then either sell or use as they see fit. Apps that are designed to take advantage of you have been dubbed “Trojan apps,” (after the Trojan Horse the Greeks used to bypass the fortified castle walls of the Trojans and sack Troy).

You can help safeguard your phone from fraudulent activity by monitoring your downloads. As reported by Silicon Republic, Trojan apps can even be disguised as kids’ games. We suggest checking the app company before installing any software inside your castle walls.

Leave the hackers out in the cold, and make them sail back from whence they came.