Investigating the security issues surrounding usage of Ephemeral data within Android environments

Abstract

With mobile devices managing more and more of our personal data, for many it has become a ubiquitous resource. This is also true in the workplace where they are instituting Bring Your Own Device practices. While this saves the enterprise money in terms of equipment, it also increases the diversity of devices brought to work. This presents security problems as corporate data received and transmitted by personal devices can be intercepted by other malicious apps on the mobile device or staying in memory for a long time. This thesis presents an ephemeral classification, where the mobile device only handles data in transit. This thesis investigates limitations and possibilities surrounding the use of ephemeral data within mobile devices.