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Cyber crimes have received a lot of attention lately as many websites have been hacked into and as a result, people’s personal information stored on the site has been stolen by criminals. The result is either bank accounts or credit card information is compromised, or the account holders have their identities stolen. And identity theft is a major concern among many consumers because once a thief has someone’s personal information, it can take years to financially recover from it.
“All of the reports that flashlight apps allow thieves to steal the personal data off phones and send it to other thieves in countries like India, Russia, and China should give pause to people before they download the apps onto their phones,” says a retailer of a pocket-sized flashlight. “With the new products on the market, no one should have to expose themselves to identify theft or any other kind of financial crimes for the simple need of a flashlight.”
John Sileo, a security expert agrees. He says that the apps work in the background on phones and mines information from them. “He says they’re taking people’s phone number, GPS location data, and they’re even taking over entire network operating systems, meaning if they are doing banking on another app, they can ‘sniff’ that and see the banking information that they’re sending.
But for many people, the warning comes too late. “Once someone has download a bad flashlight app,” says the retailer, “it’s too late. The download terms that people unwittingly agree to grants permission for the app maker to look at and take the personal information stored on their phone in exchange for the use of the free app. A much better solution is to use a small flashlight that is the size of a cell phone and can be carried anywhere.”
Sileo stress that most of the stolen information goes to marketing companies because the app company sells the information in order to make money. In other words, they give away the app for free in order to mine people’s information to sell it. But, there have also been documented cases by the Federal Trade Commission where thieves buy the personal information and use it to commit identity theft crimes. He suggests that if someone has a flashlight app they delete it right away, change their passwords, and keep a close eye on their accounts to make sure no one is using them for malicious purposes.
Release ID: 90018