Android apps are not safe. And not just for those of the ilk who think ".exe" is an appropriate extension for funny cat pics - Android apps are potentially unsafe for normal people too... The problem is that capable ne'er-do-wells are taking legitimate apps, re-engineering them with private-detail-siphoning malware, and then re-releasing them into the Android Marketplace; a process that leaves their trojan apps almost indistinguishable from the originals. Unless you happen to know that "Screaming Sexy Japanese Girls" or "Hilton Sex Sound" were not originally published by "Myournet", there is no way to tell at face value that these are not perfectly reputable. Less seedy apps such "Photo Editor" and "Scientific Calculator" were also compromised.
The ars technica piece focuses on the differences this highlights between the Marketplace and the Apple App Store (the photo header lady began her digital life fondling a stack of apples, how droll), and I am sure these are the terms under which people are going to think about this issue. Will people care more that there iPhone can't use Flash, or that there are seemingly legitimate Android apps out there that can "yank IMEI and IMSI [...] product ID, model, partner (provider?), language, country, and userID [and can also] download more code"?
That is an unfairly loaded question - the larger issue is to do with the user freedom that Android offers versus the increased level of user security that Apple guarantees. In the same way that security requires restriction, freedom requires responsibility, right? In that case, to whom does the responsibility belong? Google stripped all hacked apps out of the Marketplace within five minutes of the issue being reported, so fair play to them, but prior to this over 50000 users had downloaded unsafe code. There is a limit to how proactive they can be in policing such an open system, and reactive measures are always going to come too late for thousands of users.
It seems like the inevitable conclusion will be for this issue to further polarize Apple/Android device usership along lines of "tech savviness", but even for those unlikely to accidentally gouge out both eyes trying to turn on a pocket calculator, it may be worth reflecting upon the words of legendary pimp John Philpot Curran.
Friday, 25 March 2011
Thursday, 24 March 2011
If any man have an ear, let him hear.
We all know that the Internet emanates in thick syrupy waves from Al Gore's semi-apocalyptic pleasure palace on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee. Is it because of this that the world tends to follow the USA's lead in matters of electronic communication legislation? Some credit may also go to their tendency to kidnap, drug and brainwash foreign heads of state in the sweet way that they do. In either case, the now-usual European response to seemingly perverse judiciary decisions regarding the future of Old Man Internet may be inappropriate. Perhaps we should put down the buttery popcorn and soda pop and pay closer attention, since this may also be our future they are fitfully deciding.
From amongst increasingly bizarre news snippets (have fun trying to distinguish fact from fiction) there occasionally spring a few bright rays of hope. After the epic de-pantsing of HBGary by hippy-anarcho-terrorist cyber-demagogues Anonymous, it is clear that someone out there in Washington has been listening. Unfortunately the domain of the proposed federal investigation is such as it is because someone out there in Washington had been hiring HBGary in the first place, dirty deeds doubtless not done dirt cheap. But it has all worked out good in the end, right?
American telco giant AT&T were also under scrutiny this month, immunity from Freedom of Information Act requests denied by the supreme court. Once again the shine is taken off somewhat, this time by this week's revelation that AT&T were also complicit in the NSA's attempts to spy on everyone everywhere whilst simultaneously hosing users' private Facebook data all over central and eastern Asia, but... well, I mean, at least it's not as if they are cutting throats left right and centre on the way to becoming the single most powerful mobile carrier in the whole of North America. Are they? Of course they are.
Sometimes the Atlantic seems not very wide at all.
From amongst increasingly bizarre news snippets (have fun trying to distinguish fact from fiction) there occasionally spring a few bright rays of hope. After the epic de-pantsing of HBGary by hippy-anarcho-terrorist cyber-demagogues Anonymous, it is clear that someone out there in Washington has been listening. Unfortunately the domain of the proposed federal investigation is such as it is because someone out there in Washington had been hiring HBGary in the first place, dirty deeds doubtless not done dirt cheap. But it has all worked out good in the end, right?
American telco giant AT&T were also under scrutiny this month, immunity from Freedom of Information Act requests denied by the supreme court. Once again the shine is taken off somewhat, this time by this week's revelation that AT&T were also complicit in the NSA's attempts to spy on everyone everywhere whilst simultaneously hosing users' private Facebook data all over central and eastern Asia, but... well, I mean, at least it's not as if they are cutting throats left right and centre on the way to becoming the single most powerful mobile carrier in the whole of North America. Are they? Of course they are.
Sometimes the Atlantic seems not very wide at all.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Big Brother soon to cause urinal stage-fright
Mobile phone reception is variable at best. I can't even listen to Internet radio on my phone in the bathroom at work because the girders of my building are lined with lead bars and kryptonite egg cartons. Therefore, welcome one day soon to pervasive base stations.
Which is good, and fun. But what does it mean? Let us say that you are going to install one of these things in every EM black spot in every urban centre, in farm houses and pinned onto saguaros and dangling from lianas and wherever else there is money to be made from data transfer. Are they cheap? Probably not, but they will be. Soon it will make sense for there to be recievers in any place that a compatible transmitter (over 0.736 per global capita now) is likely to wander. Perched above all those occasional capitas, waiting... listening.
If you put that many oft-idle ears out there, people are going to start listening a lot closer. What are they going to hear is less interesting than who "they" are I suppose, but so long as I can hear the lambent tones of Justin Bieber while I attend to nature, then who cares, right?
Which is good, and fun. But what does it mean? Let us say that you are going to install one of these things in every EM black spot in every urban centre, in farm houses and pinned onto saguaros and dangling from lianas and wherever else there is money to be made from data transfer. Are they cheap? Probably not, but they will be. Soon it will make sense for there to be recievers in any place that a compatible transmitter (over 0.736 per global capita now) is likely to wander. Perched above all those occasional capitas, waiting... listening.
If you put that many oft-idle ears out there, people are going to start listening a lot closer. What are they going to hear is less interesting than who "they" are I suppose, but so long as I can hear the lambent tones of Justin Bieber while I attend to nature, then who cares, right?
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