Ezer Osei Yeboah-Boateng

Akosua Boakyewaa Teye, Ezer Osei Yeboah-Boateng

The age of technology has created a huge market for smartphones and Apps usage and a new generation has been created based on knowledge sharing. Now knowledge has been made easily accessible by Apps but; are users even aware of the permissions that these Apps require and the privacy issues involved? The study was conducted on the basis of how users make use of Apps. It was conducted through the assessment of permissions required by various Apps through carefully selected third-party Apps and the devices settings and also a review of existing literature that has been conducted in fields within Apps and privacy. It will be unearthed that a many different but exhaustive lists of permission are sought by each App installed and the device it is installed on can quite give the user the information. Also not all permissions sought were found to be risky but some just created a path or a vulnerable point for other malicious programs to take advantage of.

Ezer Osei Yeboah-Boateng, Francis Edmund Boaten

This study evaluates the cyber-risks to Business Information Assets posed by the adoption of Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) to the workplace. BYOD is an emerging trend where employees bring and use personal computing devices on the companys network to access applications and sensitive data like emails, calendar and scheduling applications, documents, etc. Employees are captivated by BYOD because they can have access to private items as well as perform certain job functions while being unrestricted to their desks. This is however usually done on the blind side of management or the system administrator; a situation that tends to expose vital and sensitive corporate information to various threats like unwanted network traffic, unknown applications, malwares, and viruses. Expert opinions were elicited in this exploratory study. The study evaluated the characteristics of BYOD, assessed associated risks, threats and vulnerabilities. The findings indicate that little or no security measures were instituted to mitigate risks associated with BYOD. Though, profound benefits abound with BYOD adoption, they could be eroded by security threats and costs of mitigation in curing breaches. The most significant risk was found to be Data Loss which was in consonance with similar studies on Smartphone security risks. Some mitigation measures are then recommended.