Researchers: 99 Percent of Android Devices Open To Security

[RandySF]

f you use an Android phone, you might be open to a security risk. Researchers at Germany's University of Ulm are claiming that 99 percent of Android devices are vulnerable to attack when they're used to log into a site on an unsecured network.

According to the research, devices running on Android 2.3.3 or older are vulnerable because of a faulty ClientLogin authentication protocol. ClientLogin is "meant to be used for authentication by installed applications and Android apps," report authors said. "Basically, to use ClientLogin, an application needs to request an authentication (authToken) from the Google service by passing an account name and password via an https connection."

When a user logs into a site like Facebook, Twitter, or Google Calendar, their information is stored for up to 14 days, and attackers can use this information to access their accounts.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385486,00.asp