Researchers customize Android for sophisticated smartphone lockdown

20.10.2011
for the past month and a half have been working to customize Google’s Android software to lock down smartphones so that sensitive data isn’t exposed once a user leaves approved locations. They’re hopeful the technology – part of a project dubbed GhostBox -- will be production-ready by year-end.

The software would be loaded on a smartphone or tablet computer and policies for hundreds or hundreds of thousands of devices could then be controlled remotely via a server.

One application might be to give medical personnel access to patient data from a smartphone within certain hospital rooms but cut off access outside such rooms, protecting the data in the event the device is lost, compromised by malware or  if the phone user attempts to misuse the data. Other applications could include safeguarding military data or putting parental controls on kids, according to project lead Jules White, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

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BACKGROUND:  

Hamilton Turner, a Ph.D. student working on the project within the schools’ , answered a few of my questions to clarify how the technology works.