Objective
We conduct a first large-scale analysis of mobile health (mHealth) apps available on Google Play with the goal of providing a comprehensive view of mHealth apps’ security features and gauging the associated risks for mHealth users and their data.
Materials and Methods
We designed an app collection platform that discovered and downloaded more than 20 000 mHealth apps from the Medical and Health & Fitness categories on Google Play. We performed a suite of app code and traffic measurements to highlight a range of app security flaws: certificate security, sensitive or unnecessary permission requests, malware presence, communication security, and security-related concerns raised in user reviews.
Results
Compared to baseline non-mHealth apps, mHealth apps generally adopt more reliable signing mechanisms and request fewer dangerous permissions. However, significant fractions of mHealth apps expose users to serious security risks. Specifically, 1.8% of mHealth apps package suspicious codes (eg, trojans), 45.0% rely on unencrypted communication, and as much as 23.0% of personal data (eg, location information and passwords) is sent on unsecured traffic. An analysis of the app reviews reveals that mHealth app users are largely unaware of the surfaced security issues.
Conclusion
Despite being better aligned with security best practices than non-mHealth apps, mHealth apps are still far from ensuring robust security guarantees. App users, clinicians, technology developers, and policy makers alike should be cognizant of the uncovered security issues and weigh them carefully against the benefits of mHealth apps.
Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) are natural based classification algorithm that combine Multiple Layer Perceptron (MLPs). Meanwhile, support vector machines (SVM) is a mathematical-based classification algorithm that naturally have supervised learning models. In some research related to image processing, each algorithm has its owned supremacy as well as the drawback. None of the previous studies compare both algorithm when they are utilized to detect nodule located in the pulmonary or lung images produced by Computed Tomography (CT) scan. Hence, this research comparing the two algorithms in case of lung nodule detection in CT images, since detecting lung nodule in CT images is still challenging. SVM-based classifier is preceded by feature extraction as its common behavior of mathematical based classifier. There are three algorithms use to conduct feature extraction process, namely Hu moment invariant, Haralick and Color Histogram extraction. In the opposite, CNN-based classifier consists of three layers convolution for training and testing steps. The result shows that SVM has better results than CNN in case of computing speed. Meanwhile have a better accuracy in detecting lung nodule. The results of the test analysis show that the extractor feature when preprocessing conduct before being classified by SVM makes the computing process faster. The accuracy of SVM-based classifier can be improved by adjusting some computation variables in feature extraction stages, such as adding more bins in the color histogram extraction. Those adjustment will lead to more computation times.
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