Mobile Data Analysis using Dynamic Binary Instrumentation and Static Analysis

Mobile classified data leakage poses a threat to the DoD programs and missions. Security experts must know the format of application data, in order to properly classify mobile applications. This research presents the DBIMAFIA methodology to identify stored data formats. DBIMAFIA uses DBI and static analysis to uncover the structure of mobile application data and validate the results with traditional reverse engineering methods. DBIMAFIA was applied to fifteen popular Android applications and revealed the format of stored data. Notably, user PII leakage is identified in the Rago Games application. The application\u27s messaging service exposes the full name, birthday, and city of any user of the Rago Games application. These findings on how Haga Games uses ObjectBox library to store data in custom file formats can be applied more broadly to any mobile, IoT, or SCADA device or application using the ObjectBox library. Furthermore, the DBIMAFIA methodology can be more broadly defined to identify stored data within any Android application

Mobile Applications and Access to Personal Information: A Discussion of Users\u27 Privacy Concerns

Mobile applications (apps) have become highly popular and are creating new economic opportunities for app providers, developers, software companies, and advertisers. Due to the access to personal information, mobile apps may pose a threat to users’ privacy, which can incite users not to install or to uninstall mobile apps. In the last twenty years, concerns for information privacy (CFIP) have been investigated by several studies, which adapted CFIP to an online and to a mobile context. Our extended approach for mobile users’ information privacy concerns (MUIPC) analyzes four dimensions of access to personal information, i.e., personal identity, location, device content, and system and network settings. By conducting an online survey with 474 participants, we test the influence of these dimensions on MUIPC with a structural equation model (SEM). Three dimensions are found to be significantly influential. The results are discussed and implications for research and practice are given

The Effects of Security Framing, Time Pressure, and Brand Familiarity on Risky Mobile Application Downloads

The current study examined the effects of security system framing, time pressure, and brand familiarity on mobile application download behaviors, with an emphasis on risk taking. According to the Prospect Theory, people tend to engage in irrational decision making, and make qualitatively different decisions when information is framed in terms of gains and losses (i.e., the framing effect). Past research has used this framing effect to guide the design of a risk display for mobile applications (apps), with the purpose of communicating the potential risks and minimizing insecure app selections. Time pressure has been shown to influence the framing effect in both hypothetical choices in lab settings as well as with consumer purchases, and brand familiarity has been shown to affect consumers’ purchase behaviors. Neither factor has been studied in the context of risk communication for mobile app. The current study addressed this gap in the literature and examined the effects of time pressure and brand familiarity on the effectiveness of risk displays (framed as safety or risks) for mobile apps. Specifically, users’ choices were recorded as a measure of effective risk displays. The findings from this study indicated that users rely heavily on brand familiarity when downloading apps. We also showed that security scores, especially when framed as safety, were effective at guiding choice, though this advantage of safety framing was not present when users made decisions under time pressure. The implications from the study indicate that people implicitly trust brands they recognize, safety framed security can be helpful, and decision-making processes change under time pressure

Metafore mobilnih komunikacija ; Метафоры мобильной связи.

Mobilne komunikacije su polje informacione i komunikacione tehnologije koje karakteriše brzi razvoj i u kome se istraživanjem u analitičkim okvirima kognitivne lingvistike, zasnovanom na uzorku od 1005 odrednica, otkriva izrazito prisustvo metafore, metonimije, analogije i pojmovnog objedinjavanja. Analiza uzorka reči i izraza iz oblasti mobilnih medija, mobilnih operativnih sistema, dizajna korisničkih interfejsa, terminologije mobilnih mreža, kao i slenga i tekstizama koje upotrebljavaju korisnici mobilnih naprava ukazuje da pomenuti kognitivni mehanizmi imaju ključnu ulogu u olakšavanju interakcije između ljudi i širokog spektra mobilnih uređaja sa računarskim sposobnostima, od prenosivih računara i ličnih digitalnih asistenata (PDA), do mobilnih telefona, tableta i sprava koje se nose na telu. Ti mehanizmi predstavljaju temelj razumevanja i nalaze se u osnovi principa funkcionisanja grafičkih korisničkih interfejsa i direktne manipulacije u računarskim okruženjima. Takođe je analiziran i poseban uzorak od 660 emotikona i emođija koji pokazuju potencijal za proširenje značenja, imajući u vidu značaj piktograma za tekstualnu komunikaciju u vidu SMS poruka i razmenu tekstualnih sadržaja na društvenim mrežama kojima se redovno pristupa putem mobilnih uređaja...Mobile communications are a fast-developing field of information and communication technology whose exploration within the analytical framework of cognitive linguistics, based on a sample of 1005 entries, reveals the pervasive presence of metaphor, metonymy analogy and conceptual integration. The analysis of the sample consisting of words and phrases related to mobile media, mobile operating systems and interface design, the terminology of mobile networking, as well as the slang and textisms employed by mobile gadget users shows that the above cognitive mechanisms play a key role in facilitating interaction between people and a wide range of mobile computing devices from laptops and PDAs to mobile phones, tablets and wearables. They are the cornerstones of comprehension that are behind the principles of functioning of graphical user interfaces and direct manipulation in computing environments. A separate sample, featuring a selection of 660 emoticons and emoji, exhibiting the potential for semantic expansion was also analyzed, in view of the significance of pictograms for text-based communication in the form of text messages or exchanges on social media sites regularly accessed via mobile devices..