Apple removed the application that stored passwords iPhone

Apple has withdrawn Big Brother Security Camera App Store . This application allowed the phone to block off the screen and asked for a password to access the desktop again. However, its creator stored passwords for users (anonymously) to do a safety study.

Daniel Amitay, the developer behind this application, had published a blog entry in which he explained what the most common passwords on iPhone with data that was extracted from its application. These data, he asserted, were stored anonymously. The news reached the covers and left the proposed security and control of the online stores of Apple compromised.

Within 24 hours, the application has disappeared from the App Store. In Cupertino have rushed to withdraw this 'app' that demonstrates the vulnerability of its system for reviewing content , especially when it comes to an update of a program already approved.

"Of course I am unhappy," Amitay said in his blog, "but given the concerns that some people have expressed regarding the transmission of data from the 'app' to my server, is understandable."

Collection of secondary data and anonymous

In any case, Amitay also took the opportunity to explain exactly what data and how it was obtained. Passwords obtained, for example, were the application, not lock iPhone , which has a similar function. On the other hand, the only data that was sent was the password itself. That is, all that were sent were the four digits, so Amitay could not identify the user or device from which they came .

In addition, the developer is defended on the grounds that data collection is covered by the license agreement of the users , which specifies that the provider "may collect and use technical data and related information." This information includes "technical information on the device, system and application software provider (...) The application can use this information, if it is a way that does not identify the user, to improve its products or provide services and technologies. "

For now, Amitay has ensured he is working to make the application again. It also explains that he has no problem in removing the code that collects passwords if that's what caused the problem, but said he thought using the information to warn users not choose obvious passwords.

The most commonly used passwords

Despite the review process they undergo the applications, enter this code could Amitay Big Brother Security Camera. In fact, if I had not posted a blog entry on analyzing the most commonly used passwords, it is likely that Apple will never have known.

But what are these passwords? According to their analysis of 204,508 registered, the most common is '1234 ', used by 8884 people , followed by '0000 '(5246), '2580' (combination follows a straight line and use 4753 users), '1111 ' (3262), '5555 '(1,774) and '5683' (combination that would write 'love' in a traditional phone keypad and the device 1425 that protected his people).

Another interesting facts he discovered Amitay is that all numbers between 1980 and 2000 are among the 100 most used , so it is believed that many users use the password the year of birth or graduation.

With these data concluded that 15% of the passwords that are a series of ten 10,000 possible codes . That is, using these passwords could access one of every seven iPhones without their start in the deletion of data (which by default occurs after entering incorrect ten passwords).