Data security has become a priority issue in the current contemporary world amidst the realization in the enhancement of Information Technology (Huang et al., 2011). Precisely, the increase in the use of cell phones has triggered immense security questions on whether run off cell towers are secure or not. The underlying radio-frequency fields that are usually developed by cell phone towers are essentially described as non-ionizing radiation. The radiation is similar to that released by TV broadcasts and AM/FM radio. Nonetheless, it is important to note that unlike other forms of radiation such as ionizing radiation, radiofrequency fields are not associated with the capabilities of breaking down chemical bonds that are found in the human body (Khan et al., 2013).
As far as the use of cell phones is concerned, it is important that measures should be put in place to ensure that regulatory requirements that govern human exposure to radiation have been met. That is due to the fact that cell phones are associated with the emission of small amounts of radiofrequency radiation that tends to be absorbed by the human by the body to some extent. According to Tysowski and Hasan, (2013), the amount of radiofrequency radiation that is likely to be absorbed by the human body will solemnly depend on a number of factors including the distance between the cell phone and the human body alongside the strength of the underlying frequency. Cell phones are usually designed with the consent of ensuring that quality call is attained. Usually, cell phones receive or consequently send signals from a network of low power, fixed or cell phone towers (Wasserman, 2011). The signals are in most cases received from the towers, utility posts, and rooftops. In that regard, the transmitting power of cell phones is usually associated with distance from cell phone tower or rooftops that have been used in which the power tends to increase as users move far away from the nearest cell phone tower. That means that using cell phones is not entirely risk-free. For instance, people are advised to apprehend their safety when using cell phones while cycling, walking or even driving. In retrospect to that, cell phones are also associated with adverse effects with hearing devices as well as cardiac pacemakers among others. Other sensitive electronic equipment such as navigation systems and aircraft equipment can also be affected by the use of cell phones (Wasserman, 2011).
The use of the internet in computers and mobile applications is also associated with a number of security risks and vulnerabilities (Khan et al., 2013). In that regard, it is vital to ensure that educational technologies, websites and mobile apps that are used are valid and from trusted sources. Importantly, proper security measures should be put in place regardless of whether one is using mobile apps or websites. For instance, remote mobile and computer users should ensure that secure security networks such as VPN have been used to minimize the chances of a security breach by third parties. Contrary to that, cell phone users should use both cloud storage and data encryption to ensure that information is protected (Huang et al., 2011). Consequently, the measure will ensure that security issues that involve both software and hardware security breaches have been addressed. Users should not only be in a position to run applications safely; they should also be able to use applications that can be understood and tested to ascertain the levels of securities that they offer (Wasserman, 2011). While using mobile apps and websites, users should ensure that they use strong passwords to reduce the chances of suffering from unethical hacking. Notably, many students are usually involved with the development of mobile apps because of the role that is exhibited by cell phones in the current community. Therefore, they should redirect equal efforts into ensuring that security measures are enforced to bolster the usability of both websites and mobile apps (Wasserman, 2011).
According to Tysowski and Hasan, (2013), some of the security concerns that revolve around the use of mobile apps include data protection, code vulnerability, secure authentication and intellectual property protection (Huang et al., 2011). In that regard there are various hardware and software tools that are used to test security and credibility of smartphone mobile apps in the universities in the due course of their development. For example, Firebase Test Lab for Android is essentially a cloud-based infrastructure that is used to test the credibility of android apps. Initiating the operation enables the users to subject android apps across a variety of device configurations. The results of the test are presented in forms of videos, logs as well as screenshots that are made available at the Firebase console. Firebase Test Lab for Android is also great in the sense that it can exercise apps automatically and search for crashes regardless of whether they have written test codes or not (Khan et al., 2013). In addition to that, Firebase Test Lab for Android is also designed to help the mobile apps developers to find issues that are specific and consequently unique to particular mobile apps configurations. For instance, Nexus 5 is used to run specific locale settings as well as android API level. Mobile apps developers are also advised on adding the Test Lab screenshot libraries to their apps test projects for easy reading and interpretation of the test results (Huang et al., 2011).
- Huang, D., Zhou, Z., Xu, L., Xing, T., & Zhong, Y. (2011, April). Secure data processing framework for mobile cloud computing. In Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), 2011 IEEE Conference on (pp. 614-618). IEEE.
- Khan, A. N., Kiah, M. M., Khan, S. U., & Madani, S. A. (2013). Towards secure mobile cloud computing: A survey. Future Generation Computer Systems, 29(5), 1278-1299.
- Tysowski, P. K., & Hasan, M. A. (2013). Hybrid attribute-and re-encryption-based key management for secure and scalable mobile applications in clouds. IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, 1(2), 172-186.
- Wasserman, A. I. (2011, November). Software engineering issues for mobile application development. In Proceedings of the FSE/SDP workshop on Future of software engineering research (pp. 397-400). ACM.
