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Article

Assessing the Security and Privacy of Android Official ID Wallet Apps

by
Vasileios Kouliaridis
1,*,†,
Georgios Karopoulos
1,† and
Georgios Kambourakis
2,†
1
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), 21027 Ispra, Italy
2
Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, 83200 Karlovasi, Greece
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Information 2023, 14(8), 457; https://doi.org/10.3390/info14080457
Submission received: 24 July 2023 / Revised: 10 August 2023 / Accepted: 11 August 2023 / Published: 13 August 2023
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Privacy and Security)

Abstract

With the increasing use of smartphones for a wide variety of online services, states and countries are issuing official applications to store government-issued documents that can be used for identification (e.g., electronic identity cards), health (e.g., vaccination certificates), and transport (e.g., driver’s licenses). However, the privacy and security risks associated with the storage of sensitive personal information on such apps are a major concern. This work presents a thorough analysis of official Android wallet apps, focusing mainly on apps used to store identification documents and/or driver’s licenses. Specifically, we examine the security and privacy level of such apps using three analysis tools and discuss the key findings and the risks involved. We additionally explore Android app security best practices and various security measures that can be employed to mitigate these risks, such as updating deprecated components and libraries. Altogether, our findings demonstrate that, while there are various security measures available, there is still a need for more comprehensive solutions to address the privacy and security risks associated with the use of Android wallet apps.
Keywords: Android privacy; Android security; wallet apps Android privacy; Android security; wallet apps

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Kouliaridis, V.; Karopoulos, G.; Kambourakis, G. Assessing the Security and Privacy of Android Official ID Wallet Apps. Information 2023, 14, 457. https://doi.org/10.3390/info14080457

AMA Style

Kouliaridis V, Karopoulos G, Kambourakis G. Assessing the Security and Privacy of Android Official ID Wallet Apps. Information. 2023; 14(8):457. https://doi.org/10.3390/info14080457

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kouliaridis, Vasileios, Georgios Karopoulos, and Georgios Kambourakis. 2023. "Assessing the Security and Privacy of Android Official ID Wallet Apps" Information 14, no. 8: 457. https://doi.org/10.3390/info14080457

APA Style

Kouliaridis, V., Karopoulos, G., & Kambourakis, G. (2023). Assessing the Security and Privacy of Android Official ID Wallet Apps. Information, 14(8), 457. https://doi.org/10.3390/info14080457

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