One of the biggest threat categories, which the industry refers to today is PUA (potentially unwanted applications).
PUA can be defined through multiple means:
- an advertising network, which requests too much personal data
- an advertising network, which attempts to inject malicious content
- a payment processer, where it is very easy to incur charges, without user consent
- a downloader, which is wrapped around a desired product, but installs an array of other products
- a product, which contains too many advertising windows and continually injects unwanted content on the device
- a product which requires more access rights, then it needs to function properly
- a product, which can be used for good or bad purposes, such as spy vs remote control software
and many many more.
Each user has a different sense of privacy and an acceptance level to advertisements, however privacy loss is a threat. We experience many users, who are willing to tolerate many annoyances or give away a lot of information about themselves, just to get free software. Do users care? It is like asking your teenager about the compromising picture and quote they made on Facebook.
Many actions are made in innocence, but come back to haunt you later in life.
Drawing the line between good and bad, has become a personal decision, causing us as a vendor to rethink many processes, decisions, and communications we have with our users.
Currently we are building solutions, which reside on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Chrome, Opera, Firefox operating systems and browsers.
Some of those products allow us to do our job, others make our job to protect users very difficult. We are conscious of our responsibility and are investing a lot to help our users, understand more about the threats around them and define an appropriate security level for themselves.
Be careful and think before you accept everything an application or a website requests. Regardless of how well we perform our work, we need you to also act responsibly.