Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Many Android VPN Apps Contain Malware Or Exploitable Weaknesses


Most tech savvy netizens these days use VPN to hide their digital privacy. However, a study by Simon Migliano, who is the head of research at Metric Labs, showed that you might still be wasting your time.

Migliano and his team performed an extensive survey of the top 150 VPN Android apps offered on Google’s Play Store and the results are depressing. About 20% of those apps were flagged as possible malware sources. Plus, more than 25% of the apps tested have privacy bugs like DNS leaks, which is a very big issue. DNS leaks show user DNS queries to their internet service providers.

Maybe one of the most troubling concern is that if taken as a whole, these apps have been downloaded for at least 260 million times. That’s a massive number! Millions of people believe they are secure when in fact they are not.

Perhaps some of the problems discovered by Migliano’s team were minor. Most of these apps are asking extremely aggressive permissions, which provides the app as well as the company controlling it more details than what they actually need about you. This includes the when, where, and how you use your device. Out of the top ten free VPN apps that are offered on the Play Store, a shocking seven of them have problems with DNS leaks. These includes:
  • Super VPN
  • Hi VPN
  • Turbo VPN
  • VPN Master
  • Snap VPN
The only app among the top ten that have been tested that do not have leaks or other risky functions was the Hotspot Shield Basic. So, don’t forget the name of that app in case you are using something else on your device. Don’t just think of it. You have to switch to it! Secure your device now.

Great job to Migliano and his team for their hard work and diligent research!

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(910) 218-9255


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