Almost all of us have our world on your mobile phones — from private moments to banking details to ID cards and sometimes even passwords stored in our phones. And then come applications — hundreds of apps — from shopping to groceries to medicines to travel and banking and social media. From our phone numbers to residential addresses, these apps have it all.
Cybersecurity then becomes paramount. After Google head Sundar Pichai's Twitter data was leaked, the lesson that needs to be learnt here is that it’s time to be vigilant. Coincidentally, "BeVigil" is the name of cybersecurity firm CloudSEK’s latest mobile app, which is a security search engine to help users identify and avoid potentially dangerous apps — by providing them with detailed information about the security and privacy practices of their favourite mobile apps.
Syed Shahrukh Ahmad, Co-Founder, CloudSEK, said the inspiration behind the app was to enable users to know exactly what is wrong with any particular application even before downloading it from the Play Store. “We saw several apps containing malware doing rounds on both Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store and users have no way of knowing by themselves that a certain app is malicious," he said. BeVigil bridges that gap.
“BeVigil application will give consumers the power to report issues to application developers which will help these developers to improve the security of the mobile application. This application would also be helpful to the bug bounty hunters, helping them report bugs to the companies,” Ahmad added.
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BeVigil helps in solving several big problems related to mobile app security and privacy.
It is doing so in the following ways:
Improving mobile/data security
By providing users with detailed information about the security and privacy practices of mobile apps, BeVigil is helping users identify and avoid potentially dangerous apps.
Empowering users to make informed decisions
BeVigil gives users the tools they need to make informed decisions about which apps to download and use. By providing users with detailed information about the app's security and privacy practices, BeVigil helps users make better decisions about which apps to trust with their personal data.
Enhancing transparency
BeVigil promises to promote transparency in the mobile app ecosystem by providing users with detailed information about mobile app security and privacy practices.
This enables users understand what happens to their personal data when they use mobile apps, and makes it easier for them to identify and avoid apps that collect or use their personal data in ways they are uncomfortable with.
Helping to prevent data breaches
When users are better informed about mobile apps' security and privacy practices, they are less likely to download and use apps with security vulnerabilities.
Ahmad also pointed out that BeVigil scans the latest version of any mobile app and keeps checking the security issues present in the latest version of the app. This way, BeVigil is able to detect security issues present in every version of the mobile app. With every update on the Play Store, irrespective of what changes in the mobile app, the system is able to detect the security issue present in the mobile app.
Future plans
Ahmad said, “We are planning to add a threat intelligence news feed to BeVigil mobile app which will keep the users aware of the security incidents happening around the cybersecurity space on a daily basis.”
BeVigil is the first of its kind and is now available for free download on the Google Play Store. It has been running as a web application for the past year and has already scanned and scored over a million apps.
