2021/05/26 by Maximilian Zinkus, Zinkus, Maximilian, Tushar M. Jois +3 · 1 voice
Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Advanced Malware Detection Techniques #Cryptographic Implementations and Security #Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting #Privacy, Security, and Data Protection #Security and Verification in Computing #cs.CR #cs.CY
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2105.12613
openalex publication_date 2021/05/26 · openalex created_date 2022/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this work we present definitive evidence, analysis, and (where needed)\nspeculation to answer the questions, (1) Which concrete security measures in\nmobile devices meaningfully prevent unauthorized access to user data? (2) In\nwhat ways are modern mobile devices accessed by unauthorized parties? (3) How\ncan we improve modern mobile devices to prevent unauthorized access?\n We examine the two major platforms in the mobile space, iOS and Android, and\nfor each we provide a thorough investigation of existing and historical\nsecurity features, evidence-based discussion of known security bypass\ntechniques, and concrete recommendations for remediation. We then aggregate and\nanalyze public records, documentation, articles, and blog postings to\ncategorize and discuss unauthorized bypass of security features by hackers and\nlaw enforcement alike. We provide in-depth analysis of the data potentially\naccessed via law enforcement methodologies from both mobile devices and\nassociated cloud services.\n Our fact-gathering and analysis allow us to make a number of recommendations\nfor improving data security on these devices. The mitigations we propose can be\nlargely summarized as increasing coverage of sensitive data via strong\nencryption, but we detail various challenges and approaches towards this goal\nand others. It is our hope that this work stimulates mobile device development\nand research towards security and privacy, provides a unique reference of\ninformation, and acts as an evidence-based argument for the importance of\nreliable encryption to privacy, which we believe is both a human right and\nintegral to a functioning democracy.\n