Abandoned IoT apps keep sending sensitive data to broken servers

Millions of people still run smart home and IoT companion apps, the apps used to control devices like smart plugs, cameras, and thermostats, that stopped receiving updates years ago. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst analyzed 61,500 abandoned Android IoT apps and found that nearly three in four contained software dependencies associated with documented vulnerabilities. The team built its dataset from AndroZoo, a large archive of Android apps, then filtered for companion apps