Pokemon GO can cause problems with cybersecurity?

If you have not lived in an underground bunker in the past few weeks, you should be well aware of how Pokemon GO's game is conquering the world, and this is even though many countries do not yet have access to it.

Data collection

In social networks, there were several questionable stories about viruses associated with Pokemon GO. Nevertheless, cybersecurity can be a real cause for concern because of this popular game. Adam Reeve, a researcher at the security analytics firm, published a post that the Pokemon GO can really pose a threat to your security and privacy on the Internet.

As stated in the post to start playing, you need to log in with an account that can be obtained from the site pokemon.com. But in addition, you can access and using your Google account, which was done by most users because of the convenience. According to the post, if you use the latter option, this means that Niantic, the game developer, has full access to your Google account. This means that she can access your documents, view search history and images. Also it is worth considering that if Niantic is hacked, then all this information will be captured.

Niantic's response

Representatives of the company Niantic reacted to the post of Adam Riva message that they recognize these problems. Also, Google confirmed that no other information will be obtained because of the access to Pokemon GO or Niantic. In the near future, Google plans to limit the access of Pokemon GO to the user's account. Thus, the game will only have access to the main profile data that will be needed, and users will not have to do anything on their own.

In addition, there are other assumptions that Niantic has never had access to certain aspects of your Google account, such as letters (although other information may still be available).

Reeve responded to the company's response and published another post: "I am very glad that the company quickly resolved these problems. I had intentions to attract the attention of developers even after the first attempts to contact them were unsuccessful. Now we can all go to catch Pokémon. "

Malicious programs

But the game hides another threat that you need to be aware of before you start looking for adventure.

Already there were reports of malicious programs being developed for Pokemon GO. Proofpoint - data protection service - has made several statements that applications for Pokemon GO are modified to receive a malicious software remote access tool. This means that in fact, third parties can get full access to your phone's data. Such "fake" applications that come with malicious programs are more likely to be downloaded by impatient players who download the application from unofficial sources to get the game even before the release date in their country.

How to protect your virtual life?

There are several ways to check which version you downloaded to your phone. One of them is to check the list of permissions that you provided to the application. The company Proofpoint explains in detail how to do this on its website.

Given that the game Pokemon GO already has millions of fans after its release, it's no wonder that it begins to grow controversy. But if you downloaded it from the official Apple Store or the Android Play Store, then you have less reason to worry about cybersecurity.

As for the issue of data collection by the developer company, one can only hope that it will solve this problem before anyone comes to mind using this information.