Data theft risk for Android smartphones.(News)

Byline: Sean Poulter Consumer Affairs Editor

MILLIONS of smartphones which use the Android software promoted by Google are a security risk, it was claimed yesterday.

Researchers found that criminals can tap into the transfer of information between the phones and the internet, gaining access to personal data.

The discovery was made by security experts at the University of Ulm in Germany.

Most smartphone manufacturers other than Apple use the Android operating system.

Many applications on Android phones interact with Google services by asking for an authentication token - essentially a digital ID card for particular application. The token removes the need to keep logging into a service each time you need to access it.

It is claimed that a hacker monitoring an Android smartphone connected to the internet via a wi-fi network would be able to steal the token.

In theory, the hacker would then use the information to log on to websites using the identity of the phone's legitimate user.

In a blog posting on their findings, the researchers said: 'The adversary can gain full access to the calendar, contacts information, or private web albums of the respective Google user.' Google has released software updates which are said to address most of the security concerns.