A Comprehensive Discussion on Mobile Technology and Android Systems

This report is a comprehensive discussion on mobile technology and Android operating systems. Part A explores the evolution of mobile computing from ubiquitous computing, current advancements in mobile devices and applications, including wearable devices, IoT, and innovative UI design, and the challenges mobile computing poses to forensics practitioners. Part B focuses on the Android operating system, detailing various types of Android malware, their classification, and methods for detection and prevention. The report provides a detailed analysis of the subject matter, covering key aspects of mobile technology, Android OS, and related security concerns, making it a valuable resource for understanding the current landscape of mobile computing and its associated challenges and solutions.

Running head: DISCUSSION ON MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND ANDROID OPERATING SYSTEMS
Discussion on Mobile Technology and Android Operating Systems
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1DISCUSSION ON MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND ANDROID OPERATING SYSTEMS
Table of Contents
Part A: Introduction of Mobile Technology....................................................................................2
1. Introduction to Mobile Technology.............................................................................................2
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Evolvement of Mobile Computing from Ubiquitous Computing Paradigm.........................2
2.2 Current Advances and Development on Mobile Devices and Applications.............................3
2.3 Challenges posed by Mobile Computing towards Forensics Practitioners...............................5
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................6
Part B: Android Operating Systems................................................................................................8
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................8
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Different Types and Classification of Android Malware......................................................8
2.2 Detection and Prevention Techniques.................................................................................10
3. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Part A: Introduction of Mobile Technology
1. Introduction to Mobile Technology
Mobile technology is defined as the kind of cellular communication technology, which
has shown a rapid growth in the recent years. Over the years, a mobile device has shown
tremendous growth and has made their reach to the house of millions. There has been a massive
belief that the future of computing technology would mainly rest with the perspective of mobile
computing and wireless networking technology (Khaddage, Müller and Flintoff 2016). The
aspect of mobile computing has become popular in the recent years. There are different kind of
meaning in various aspects. The mobile technology or mobile computing is defined as the
framework, which would be responsible for the consistent work over the mobile computing
technology.
The following parts of the report would focus over the evolvement of mobile computing
from the traditional computing paradigms. The current form of advances made in the field of
mobile computing have also been discussed while understanding the major challenges that are
faced by forensic practitioners based on the effect of mobile computing. This discussion would
further help in the understanding of the different aspects of mobile computing that would help
the current systems to be developed and thus new users would be able to take the advantages of
such form of systems.
2. Discussion
2.1 Evolvement of Mobile Computing from Ubiquitous Computing Paradigm
One of the primary reasons behind the surge of mobile computing as an interesting area
of research and design is the strong sense of innovation and rapid expansion of the technological

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systems. New technologies are always being developed at a rapid phase and new domains of
expansion are continuously being explored regularly (Traxler and Vosloo 2014). On the other
hand, ubiquitous computing paradigm, which is also known as pervasive computing can be
defined as the growing trend based on the capability of embedded computations (Wood et al.
2016). The devices based on pervasive computing are generally network connected and available
on a constant basis.
Unlike the use of desktop computing, the use of pervasive computing could occur on any
form of device. It could also occur at any place, time and any data format that would be
performed across any form of network. In the recent times, pervasive computing has primarily
evolved to include smartphones, laptops, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets and sensors
(Mac Callum and Jeffrey 2014). The use of pervasive computing is mainly used for designing the
devices that might be useful for the consumers. Mobile computing had mainly evolved from the
concept of ubiquitous computing. However, most currently the trend is towards the use of
ubiquitous computing, which is entirely based on the concept of mobile computing (Karanasios
and Allen 2014). This form of computing would mainly make use of LANs, WANs and PANs
that would be considered as extremely reliable in terms of performing networking based tasks in
small spaces.
2.2 Current Advances and Development on Mobile Devices and Applications
As per current areas of research made over the field of mobile computing, it can be
discussed that there are more than 2 billion smartphones and various mobile applications that are
being downloaded on a huge basis. From this analysis, it can be clearly understood that this is
one of the most active and innovative sector in the market (Zhang et al. 2014). The application
market based on mobile computing technology is mainly being dominated by Google

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applications and other Operating System based applications. Different social media applications,
gaming applications and other useful applications have formed a major kind of dominating factor
(Xu et al. 2015). Different midsize and small businesses have formed a huge customer base and
this is the most obvious reason behind the tremendous growth of such mobile applications.
An effective kind of mobile strategy is extremely helpful for gaining a wide customer
base and moving ahead of just being a mobile-friendly website. The development and advances
in the area of mobile applications is mostly required by most businesses to ensure a vision that
would support them for the next few years (Sheng et al. 2015). The futuristic form of
technological changes have formed a challenging factor for developers to form a strategic vision
and from the technical standpoint. With the major rise of mobile applications, which had been
distributed on a commercial basis through different application stores are mainly subjected to
changes in sales transaction. The primary task of adoption and promotion by new users is
becoming an increasing challenging factor. The market share made for smartphones is changing
on a rapid basis made between different kinds of systems. The major form of advances and
developments made in the field of mobile devices and applications are discussed below:
1. Wearable Devices – In present times, different smart wearable devices have shown
tremendous growth. These includes the most obvious examples such as Apple Watch, Samsung
Watch and others. With the development of such wearable devices, the smartphone would
become the primary hub in which different other connected devices could be integrated and thus
make life easier for people. These kind of gadgets could be further used for gathering
information with new techniques and analysing them for delivering better insights.
2. IoT and Connected Smart Objects – The rise of IoT enabled technology would lead
to the deriving better form of information and high level of services to customers. In the present

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times, every computing device is enabled with intelligent sensors, which are highly helpful for
deriving better information from customers and providing better outputs and reactions (Rodgers,
Pai and Conroy 2014). One famous example of IoT and smart devices is the innovation of
‘Amazon Echo’, which has been launched by Amazon. This device is a voice command device
that answers questions raised by customers. This device could also be used for controlling the
other smart devices within the environment of a home.
3. Innovative UI Design – The mobile user interface is designed in such a manner that it
would be able to attract the attention of users. Different successful mobile applications such as
Instagram, Wunderlist and Pinterest have developed mew kind of patterns that are able to depict
the interactive interfaces and intuitive designs. The leading applications that are used by
consumers have set high standards based on the use of high interface design. Hence,
organizations have primarily mastered the skills and engaging with new partners and meeting up
to the expectations of customers.
4. Application Performance Management – The use of APM would mainly use
improve the quality assurance and testing over any software. APM tools have faced tremendous
challenges based on providing better performance across different systems (Yaqoob et al. 2017).
These have helped towards the development of user insights and aligning with the performance
of better business processes.
2.3 Challenges posed by Mobile Computing towards Forensics Practitioners
There are a number of personal mobile devices in the market. Mobile device forensics
can be defined as the process of recovering different forms of digital evidence from different
mobile devices under acceptable methods. The demand for the extraction of digital evidence

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have stemmed from the fact that mobile devices are primarily employed for the purpose of
storing and transmitting of corporate and personal information (Watson and Dehghantanha
2016). Mobile phones are mainly used for performing different kind of online transactions that
includes flight reservations, mobile banking, communication in relation to illegal activities, stock
trading. These have created towards the need for making use of mobile device forensics.
Different forensics investigators and law enforcement agencies have primarily struggled
towards the effective process of managing of digital evidence that would be gathered from
mobile devices. Some of the major kind of challenges that are posed by mobile computing for
forensics practitioners are:
1. The various mobile devices have a requirement for having a specialized user interface,
efficient hardware performance and storage media.
2. There are file systems, which are contained within the mobile devices that mainly
operate from the computer memory and volatile memory. This would require maximum power
that would be helpful for maintaining the stored information. These would be considered as a
standalone hard disk drive, which would not require a standard and maintained power supply.
3. In the present times, there are various kind of operating systems, which are embedded
within the mobile devices (Khan et al. 2014). Hence, the forensics practitioners have effaced
major problems in extraction of useful information from each of the devices having a different
operating systems platform.
4. The short form of product cycles that are generated from manufactures help in
providing mobile devices with the respective form of operating systems. These would make it

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difficult for different agencies of law enforcement to remain in the present form of new
technologies.
3. Conclusion
The above discussion is based on based on the understanding of mobile technology and
the ways they have evolved in the recent years. This discussion is focused over the ways in
which the mobile computing have been evolved from the ubiquitous computing paradigm and
have formed a major impact over the society. There have been different kind of current advances
made over the development of mobile devices and applications. These include smart devices and
wearable, IoT technologies and better UI interfaces, which have helped towards the proliferation
of mobile computing. The report further discusses about the different challenges that are posed
for digital forensics practitioners in order to bring in better outcomes towards the society. Thus,
from the above discussion, it can be concluded that these systems could be considered to be
highly helpful for advancement in the field of mobile computing.

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Part B: Android Operating Systems
1. Introduction
Android is defined as a mobile operating system, which is based on the modified form of
version of open source software and Linux Kernel. The operating system is primarily designed
for the touchscreen mobile devices that include tablets and smartphones. The Android OS is
primarily designed by a group of developers under the group of Open Handset Alliance. The
other primary contributor towards the development of Android OS is developed by Google
(Irwansyah et al. 2018). The design of the Android OS helps users to manipulate their mobile
devices in an intuitive manner with the help of their finger movements that further forms mirror
common motion technique that includes tapping, swiping and pinching.
In an additional manner, the Google employs different forms of Android software in cars,
televisions and wristwatches, each of which is majorly fitted within a unique form of user
interface. The discussion in the next part of the report would mainly focus over the different
types and classification of malware attacks on the Android OS (Gunadi and Tiu 2014). It would
also discuss the various detection and prevention techniques that could be focused upon in order
to ensure a safe working environment for all users.
2. Discussion
2.1 Different Types and Classification of Android Malware
A malware is considered as a malicious worm that is primarily been deployed for the
execution of malicious activities within the compromised form of operating systems (Deshotels,
Notani and Lakhotia 2014). In the recent times, the widespread use of Android smartphones have
been based on grant of permissions and high-speed Internet. The malware are thus defined as

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such form of systems, which can ruin the Android based devices of the users thus gathering
useful information from the users and sourcing them to the attacker.
Some of the major forms of malware that affects the Android OS and the connected
devices can be differentiated and classified as:
1. Ransomware – This kind of malware primarily exists for all forms of smartphones.
However, the Android OS is primarily susceptible for the attacks from this malware. The
smartphones are the primary devices in the hands of every customers and hence attackers have
the main tendency to gain information from the customers by spreading the malware and
deriving valuable insights (Suarez-Tangil et al. 2017). Lots of information in relation to banking
and other personal details are stored within the mobile devices. The use of ransomware is mainly
done when the malware would have the major capability to lock every file and documents.
Further release and unlocking of the files could be done only when the targeted user would pay a
ransom amount of money to the attacker group after which they would unlock the file to the user.
2. Spyware – The spyware is also considered as an Android-based malware, which has
the major capability to analyse data, monitor them, record every form of information and send
the necessary information to the attacker group. The spyware form of malware is mainly
intended to steal all major form of information that would be entered within the Android device
(Pehlivan et al. 2014). The spyware would be mostly be attached with some form of application
that might get unnoticed until some form of security software would be installed on the mobile
devices of the user. From several definitions and analysis, it has been found that the most of the
mobile applications that are downloaded from the Internet contain the spyware.

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3. Adware – The Adware is generally considered as the all-time and most common
popular form of Android malware that can affect a smartphone. With the effect of the adware on
the mobile device could be considered as a dangerous aspect (Cooper, Shahriar and Haddad
2014). This malware has the major tendency to continuously send advertisements and popups on
the screen of the mobile device. In case a user would click over any advertisement, it would lead
to a dangerous impact as another form of malicious program would get downloaded. It might
also happen that any unwanted applications might also get downloaded and installed within the
device that further leads to deriving important information from the device and getting them
transferred to the attacker.
2.2 Detection and Prevention Techniques
There have been many kind of researches that have been made with the help of various
methods and software technology that are used for the detection, attack and prevention of mobile
malware. Some of the methods based on detection of the Android malware are listed below:
No. Method of Detection Description
1. F-Secure This is termed as a method based on the detection and
prevention of the mobile malware.
2. Kaspersky This is defined as an antivirus software that helps in the
prevention of malware and antivirus that affect the system.
3. McAfee This is also a type of antivirus software that helps in the
detection of malware techniques and help in the removal of
malware being attacking over the system (Saracino et al.
2016).
4. Norton The Norton antivirus application also helps in the
prevention of mobile malware being getting attacked over
the user system.
5. Cloud Service These systems are mainly used for the prediction of the
next kind of event that would be made over a mobile
device. This would help in the maintenance of a copy from
the entire mobile event (Yang et al. 2015).

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Different researches that would be made over the different models of classifying of
mobile malware have helped towards the detection and prevention of malware within the mobile
devices (Penning et al. 2014). Most of the methods based on the detection of malware have been
summarized in the form of dynamic analysis, static analysis, signature-based techniques and
cloud computing based systems.
In the first form, it can be discussed that the antivirus application system can be defined
as a traditional technique, which is based on the use of signature-based approach for the major
purpose of detection of malware such as F-Secure, McAfee, Kaspersky, Trend Micro and Norton
(Sun, Cuadros and Beznosov 2015). Based on the use of cloud service based applications, the
cloud service is mainly used for the detection and prevention of mobile malware. The Pre Crime
technique is considered as one form of malware detection system, which is primarily being
employed for the prediction of behavioural patterns of mobile devices and then comparing them
with the next kind of event.
Another technique or method that had been used makes use of several steps based on the
detection and prevention of mobile malware who would pose a serious attack over the systems.
This technique also employs the use of the method based on monitoring over the power
consumption, thus increasing the diversifying platform and further enforcement of box and
hardware (Adebayo and Aziz 2014). Different kind of antivirus applications are also in the
process of keeping a close monitoring over the network and battery levels. These would also be
able to check the status of device settings and downloading of mobile applications from various
trusted source providers (Gharib and Ghorbani 2017). Hence, there have been a development
over a protective model derived from five stages based on the detection and prevention of mobile
malware, which could be termed as investigative, cautionary, monitoring, updating and removal.