Increasingly often, mobile applications on web-enabled mobile
phones and tablet computers do more than they appear to. In
secrecy, the "apps" forward private data to a third party.
Computer scientists from Saarbrücken have developed a new
approach to prevent this data abuse. They can put a stop to the
data theft through the app "SRT AppGuard". The chief attraction:
For the protection to work, it is not necessary to identify the
suspicious programs in advance, nor must the operating system be
changed. Instead, the freely available app attacks the program
code of the digital spies. "My smartphone knows everything about
me, starting with my name, my phone number, my e-mail address,
my interests, up to my current location," explains computer
science professor Michael Backes, who manages the Center for IT-
Security, Privacy and Accountability at Saarland University. "It
even knows my friends quite well, as it saves their contact
details, too," says Backes. Therefore he is not surprised that
several mobile applicati