{"id":95831,"date":"2025-06-29T15:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T15:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/ai-breakthrough-helps-detect-hidden-apps-on-smartphones-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T15:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T15:18:08","slug":"ai-breakthrough-helps-detect-hidden-apps-on-smartphones-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/ai-breakthrough-helps-detect-hidden-apps-on-smartphones-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"AI breakthrough helps detect hidden apps on smartphones | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\">\n<figure class=\"flex items-center text-center\"><figcaption class=\"text-3 font-sans uppercase mr-3 whitespace-no-wrap\"><span class=\"ls-art\">Listen\u00a0to\u00a0article<\/span><\/figcaption><audio class=\"h-5 w-60 sm:w-80 rounded-none\" preload=\"metadata\" controlslist=\"noplaybackrate nodownload\" id=\"tts\" controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/attachments\/speech_20250628193443785-SIN5p.mp3\"\/><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Researchers in Australia have developed a powerful new technique to uncover hidden &#8220;vault&#8221; apps on smartphones \u2014 a discovery that could aid law enforcement in digital investigations.<\/p>\n<p>The study, conducted by Edith Cowan University and the University of Southern Queensland, found that machine learning (ML) can identify vault apps with up to 98% accuracy on Android devices.<\/p>\n<p>Vault apps allow users to store files, messages, or even other apps behind layers of encryption. While often used for privacy, they have increasingly been linked to illicit activities, including espionage and unauthorised surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese apps can mimic normal ones, making them very difficult to detect,\u201d said Associate Professor Mike Johnstone from ECU. \u201cCurrent detection tools rely on prior knowledge of suspicious apps, which limits their usefulness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, the new machine learning approach can identify vault apps without needing a pre-existing list or database.<\/p>\n<p>The breakthrough could offer a valuable tool for police and security agencies, particularly as smartphones become more integral to modern life, with over 5 billion users worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven how common smartphones are, any non-invasive and accurate method for identifying these hidden apps could be a game-changer,\u201d said Professor Johnstone.<\/p>\n<p>The team now plans to expand the research to include more algorithms, a wider dataset, and tests on non-Android devices.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen\u00a0to\u00a0article Researchers in Australia have developed a powerful new technique to uncover hidden &#8220;vault&#8221; apps on smartphones \u2014 a discovery that could aid law enforcement in digital investigations. The study, conducted by Edith Cowan University and the University of Southern Queensland, found that machine learning (ML) can identify vault apps with up to 98% accuracy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/app-smartphone-pex1751139426-0\/app-smartphone-pex1751139426-0.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}