Practical Technology

for practical people.

July 29, 2014
by sjvn01
0 comments

Google fixes Android’s Fake ID security hole

Bluebox Security, a mobile security company, has found a serious Android security hole that dates all the way back to Android 2.1. This hole, Fake ID, can be used by malware to impersonate trusted applications without any user notification.

Can you say bad news? I knew you could.

By enabling malware to act like already approved, high-level programs, Bluebox claims that Fake ID “can be used by malware to escape the normal application sandbox and take one or more malicious actions: insert a Trojan horse into an application by impersonating Adobe Systems; gain access to NFC [Neat Field Communication] financial and payment data by impersonating Google Wallet; or take full management control of the entire device by impersonating 3LM.” Ironically, 3LM is part of an Android enterprise security system.

Google fixes Android’s Fake ID security hole. More>

July 28, 2014
by sjvn01
0 comments

Samsung’s Tizen smartphone OS: Dead or alive?

By 2011, Android had just become the most popular smartphone operating system. At the time it still seemed possible for another mobile operating system to play a major role in the market.

That was then. This is now. With the news that Samsung will not be releasing its Tizen-powered Samsung Z in the third quarter, we must ask if Tizen will ever launch.

Samsung’s Tizen smartphone OS: Dead or alive? More>

July 28, 2014
by sjvn01
0 comments

Cell phone unlocking will be legal again

Back in October 2012, the Library of Congress, which oversees how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is enforced, ruled that cell phone unlocking without your wireless carrier’s permission was illegal. Cell-phone users were not happy, and, in July 2014, Congress finally listened and is giving users back the right to unlock cell phones.

Cell phone unlocking will be legal again. More>