Security risks of “Pokemon Go”

Summary

Nintendo's new mobile game, "Pokemon Go" has brought out with several safety alerts. In fact, many sorts of social anomalies and harshness such as muggings of unsuspecting gamers, rubbery, fraud and accidents have been reported, occasionally

On the other hand, some military related abnormalities such as confidential location disclosure or illegal entrance have been occurred, off and on

Although "Pokemon Go" is an attractive and a distinguished game, it cause many relevant side effects and serious disadvantages.

Affected Systems and Products

"Pokemon Go" is an augmented reality game developed for iOS, Android, and Apple Watch devices.

Description

According to researches, "Pokemon Go" might cause many kinds of potential threats for safety and security of people and their personal information which is known as one of the most important challenges in this evolving world where cyber security risks are being raised, continuously.

First of all, we should mind that getting apps via unofficial sources might expose us to malicious codes which can steak our private information, invisibly. As Pokemon Go allows us to enter into the world of an augmented reality game that access our camera and location to catch Pokemons, it might be a trap by the spying company to gather location information including cities, homes, basements and private rooms where spy satellites or the other spying devices can't reach

The real threat is the granted permissions while installing the app which is shown as below

There is a big question raised "why they need such confidential information and high access permission for just playing a game?!"

Recently, researchers of ESET have declared at least three fake Pokémon Go apps on Google Play Store. One of them called "Pokemon Go Ultimate" possess biggest threat to Android users. They have discovered that these malwares are linked to the malicious versions of the Pokémon GO app which installs a backdoor, called DroidJack on victim's phones and then, enables hackers to compromise victim's device completely.

Solution

Don't install this game

Relevant recommendation:

Install apps from trusted stores.
In the android systems, be ensured "unknown sources" option in the setting is unchecked.
Be careful about what permissions the app requires to be installed