Recently, a vulnerability was made public, which could have affected 70% of Android-based games and applications. Now patched, the vulnerability was even more concerning for crypto digital wallets.
What are Digital Wallets?
Put simply, digital wallets are virtual collections of payment details. They're essentially like the wallet you'd have in your pocket, but as a digital application or stored within an online platform. Perhaps two of the most popular everyday digital wallets are Google Wallet and Apple Pay. Both of these applications use tokenisation to protect the card data that is used to make payments through the app. This is done by generating randomised card details that are used to make the payment, which are then matched back to the correct details by the user's bank.
Elsewhere, users can store their card details onto digital platforms, which functions in a similar way to a digital wallet, as it saves time for the user when making repeat transactions. For example, players trying their hand at jackpot slots on online casino platforms will be required to make deposits into their account, which can then be used as credits on the slot. If a player is to win, the jackpot will be stored in their account, too. In this sense, players have the ability to pay in and withdraw from the online platform. With this in mind, the majority of online casino platforms use secure sockets layer (SSL) and transport layer security (TLS) to protect personal data during the process of a transaction.
How is Crypto Different?
Whilst payments through regular banking methods are centralised, cryptocurrency is not. This means that the level of regulation varies significantly from place to place. Similarly, in some cases there are no methods of protection or regulatory frameworks from compensation or help should anything go wrong. In turn, this can mean that crypto currency are often considered higher risk than making payments in regular currency.
Indeed, the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, hit the headlines recently with a statement warning others of the potential impact of rolling back financial regulation. In his speech, he named both AI and crypto as two of the key things that could bring additional risk to the financial sector, as their vulnerabilities could have wider implications on financial stability.
Vulnerability Patched
Recently, security experts published a warning that a flaw in Android-based apps, including crypto wallets and games, could have exposed applications from 2017 to the present to insecurities. This goes for platforms across Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux collections. The bug was said to allow potentially malicious third-party applications to access sensitive information and execute code locally on the device.
This would have allowed hackers to read any data stored in apps built by the Unity brand – which develops over 70% of the top mobile games – and change app permissions remotely. Thankfully, no hacks have been reported due to this vulnerability. Nevertheless, Unity has rolled out a patch across their network of games. It is recommended that users should update their systems and games accordingly to ensure that they are running the most up-to-date system, which includes the patch.
As you can see, the vulnerability exposed an underlying issue with crypto wallets, which can leave users more vulnerable in a malicious attack. Thankfully, the patch was able to reduce the risk of third-party access to Unity-supported apps quickly and efficiently.
