Tales from the Certified Hacker: Mobile VPN Apps Dangers

A report just in from combined research by CSIRO, University of NSW and University of California, Berkeley, highlights the dangers of not vetting VPN apps before using them.

According to the report, out of 283 Android VPN apps analysed, 18 percent failed to encrypt users' traffic while 38 percent injected malware. That is somewhat horrifying, but I guess it lends to the adage that 'there is no such thing as a free lunch'.

We expect that apps loaded from the appropriate store have been vetted properly by the hosting company, whether it be Apple, Google, Microsoft or RIM.

If you have downloaded such a VPN app, you may want to thoroughly check whether it actually does what you want without having any nasties embedded in it.

Stay safe, Terry Griffin

References: The report released by CSIRO