Event-Based Method for Detecting Trojan Horses in Mobile Devices

Abstract

Mobile phones and wireless technology and its constant evolution have, in the last years, revolutionized the way in which we communicate and work. However, one of the main barriers encounter in the use of these technologies is data security. Trojan horses are dangerous software to attack phones, PDAs and Smartphones. New versions are created everyday to attack the functionality, theft the stored information and propagate themselves. In this paper, we present a new real-time method to detect Trojan horses in mobile devices. We study the events in the device to detect programs which can be suspected to be Trojan horses. By doing so, we can detect not only the known Trojan horses with more accuracy, but also detect new trojans. Practical experiences on different devices have been carried out and results show the effectiveness of the method.