Gmail app for Android and other smartphones is like a tiny super security stuff, but this app has been hacked by the US security researchers easily and other most useful apps including Amazon also hacked.
According to the researchers Gmail was too easy to hack and others were the hardest.
Researchers tested their hack on Android smartphones and managed to access Gmail accounts in 92 per cent of cases.
This smart hack was done through disguising harmful software as another app. So this is the time you must aware of what you are installing on your smartphone.
Team also believes that this hack could be performed on all smartphones, but for now researchers tested the hack only on Android based phone.
“Third-party research is one of the ways Android is made stronger and more secure,” said a Google spokesperson, the tech giant having reportedly welcomed the findings.
Researchers came up at a cybersecurity event in San Diego, where these cool stuff was exploited.
The other affected apps included Newegg, Chase Bank, WebMD, H&R Block, Hotels.com and Amazon – which, with a 48 per cent success rate, was the hardest to crack.
How the Gmail Hack works?
Actually to crack a Gmail app on a smartphone, it could be done through getting into the shared memory of a user’s smartphone with malicious software in the name of an App that looks like a genuine one, and by monitoring that shared memory, the researchers could see when a user was operating apps such as Gmail, providing a window to steal passwords and login details.
“The assumption has always been that these apps can’t interfere with each other easily,” said Zhiyun Qian, an assistant professor at the University of California and one of the hacking team.
“We show that assumption is not correct, and one app can in fact significantly impact another and result in harmful consequences for the user.”
Apple and Windows smartphones also use shared data in the same way as Android, that’s why the team said The hack could also be implemented on any of the smartphone.
