Dongjing He recently submitted her thesis, Security Threats to Android Apps, for her MS degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He’s research addressed two security vulnerabilities with mobile applications: deficiencies in mobile app development and design ambiguities of the Android operating system. Specifically, He used a three stage study of mHealth apps to investigate potential breach opportunities arising from the reliance on unsecured Internet communications and third party servers. He also researched and discovered side-channel leaks on Android devices. He proposes defense strategies for both vulnerabilities.

Coverage of He’s work can be found in these two articles:

http://mobihealthnews.com/33828/student-study-of-android-health-apps-most-prevalent-security-issues/
http://healthitsecurity.com/2014/06/09/mhealth-android-app-security-review-attack-surfaces/