More than 35 000 mobile applications in Japan seem to be malicious

The disadvantage of an open source environment is evidently that thousands of malicious mobile application developers have access to Android systems and can distribute their software though Google Play market. This becomes evident in a study by Netagent Co. According to its data more than 35 000 mobile applications are targeted for Japanese smartphones can be considered dangerous.

The information security consultants based in Tokyo showed that such dangerous applications account for about ten per cent of all the products available for download and installation on devices with Android OS. These programs were rated on a five-level scale – dangerous, high (risk), medium, low and safe. From approximately 350 000 mobile applications that run on the Android operating system about 35 000 applications were found dangerous. These project bring different kinds of dangers – some take over your phone’s messaging and send a mass of messages promoting websites, others control the phone’s browser and show advertisements controlled by developers. Netagent President Takayuki Sugiura said that there is no standard for application software and this is the reason why a lot of dangerous mobile applications are marketed. He added that he hopes that the survey will help in providing users with awareness about this problem.

In February this year Symantec Corp. – a company that provides Internet security software – informed that malicious mobile applications are still on rise and that their developers feel that they commit no crimes. Developers just use the Android permission prompt – a pop up message that appears when the application is being installed on the device. This message claims that user legally provided access to personal data.

Contributing writer:
Mike Asher, technical writer from Australia. Specializing in IT business, software development, custom programming and open-source systems, project management and tracking software systems. At the same time his portfolio of articles and blog posts includes thought and advices regarding fashion clothes, designer houses and stylish trends.

Kinvey has launched Salesforce CRM mobile application

Mobile service Kinvey has recently released a new mobile application that allows customers to use Salesforce’s CRM platform. This is Kinvey’s first application but the company claims that with the help of its Data Links technology they created a much better experience that Salesforce. The reason to say so is that it works in a way that people usually expect mobile applications to work. Kinvey’s technology allows the applications to have a customizable front-end and it will also enable companies to tailor it to their teams’ needs.

The release of this mobile application happened several weeks after the TechStar alumnus had announced the release of Enterprise Edition.

Though Salesforce CRM has its own mobile application Kinvey believes that it doesn’t meet the needs of customers. Joe Chernov, Kinvey’s Vice President of marketing said that Salesforce’s mobile application was a kind of “off-the-rack” replica of their web application that didn’t meet the needs of the main part of their customers.

At the same time Chernov denied that Kinvey tried to compete with Salesforce by creating a CRM platform. On the contrary it is more likely that the company competes against othet backend platforms like Parse and Stackmob. While services like Parse work with independent developers Kinvey believes that there is an opportunity in not only independents but also enterprise.

The Salesforce CRM mobile application is the latest example of Kinvey’s potential and it shows not only the customizability but also the possibility of being utilized for larger companies and organizations.

Kinvey’s Salesforce CRM mobile application is available for devices either on iOS or Android. Joe Chernov says that the application is going to cost a part of what companies pay to use Salesforce.