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EFFECTED USERS: Anyone with a Smartphone.

Hair of fire 4 of 5

SUMMARY: Adidas bought Runtastic’s suite of apps.  They kept the jogging/running app, but abandoned the cycling app.

How do you find out if apps on your phone have been abandoned? There is *no* automated process for this.

Here with me to talk about this today is: Joe Carson.

Joseph Carson, Chief Security Scientist and Advisory CISO, Thycotic.  He has 25 years of experience in enterprise security, an InfoSec Award winner, author of Privileged Account Management for Dummies, AND Cybersecurity for Dummies.

CHECKLIST: How to get abandoned apps off your phone:

1. Run every OS update ASAP.
2. Ask yourself: are you still using it? Suggestion: Make a folder of ‘No Value’ or ‘Pending delete.’ After a month, get rid of them.
3. Do you have an account (ex: username and password)?
4. Delete Data (GDPR) Suggestion: you may have to hunt in the app’s website, or google, ‘How do I delete my data in ____app?”
   
5. Delete or Close your account
6. Delete the app only after all other steps are complete.

Yes, that is a ridiculously complex process, which could be automated, but it is not.

How do you find out if an app is abandoned:

1. Check app store/google play.
2. If your app still listed? If not, it is likely abandoned.
3. If your app is listed, then open the listing to see when was it last updated?  If more than a year, it is very likely abandoned or poorly maintained.

Why is an abandoned app dangerous?

• you are not informed
• vulnerabilities can be unintentiaonlly put in apps, but need to fixed by the developer when the problem is discovered.
• Abandoned apps don’t get updated, and are therefore at risk.

What needs to be deleted>

• App on your phone
• Account in the app
• Previous Data collected