Microsoft and Google to introduce the “Kill Switch”

20140622-173955-63595162.jpgSince the introduction of Apples “kill switch” preventing iPhones from being wiped or services being disabled while “find my phone” service is configured, iPhone theft has dropped dramatically. Giving owners the ability to render their phones stolen at the push of a button, turns a high value device into something a little harder to sell on.

Microsoft and Google have both recently announced they’re planning on following suit, and introducing similar systems into their own handset models.

Google recently launched their very own find my phone type system, which proved to be a little buggy at times. It’s believed that this system will gain the additional functionality of being able to disable phones on users request. Something Apple have been doing for sometime now.

This will be closely followed by a tightly bing maps integrated system by the guys over at Microsoft.

It would be great to fully stamp out phone theft, or at least make phones seem less desirable to thieves. Although this is properly unlikely to stop opportunist thieves it may stamp out some crime.

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Google follow suit with fitness platform

20140614-140102-50462831.jpgAfter Apple announced their up and coming “Health” platform for iOS it was only a matter of time before Google came through with an android equivalent.

Forbes have now released information suggesting Google are in fact working on their own aggregation platform. Rumours suggest it will be titled ‘Google Fit’. Believed to aimed at Jawbone and Fitbit owners. As well as aggregating from fitness related apps.

Google have their yearly I/O scheduled for June the 25th and 26th where it’s expected they will unveil the new platform, along side other wearable tech.

As of yet, it’s not known whether the fitness facility will be built into the next generation of the Android O/S or if it will be a standalone app. There’s also been no news of an M5 type processing chip in any of their up and coming devices.

More information on the new platform can be found here

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Spotify suffers data breach

spotify

spotifySpotify have become the latest victim of data breach, as their own network security team became aware of unauthorised access to their systems. It would seem that only one users account details has been accessed. However to ensure no other users suffer the same fate, all users will be asked to re-enter their credentials the next time they attempt to use the Spotify client.

Spotify users who use the iOS, Windows Phone and desktop apps to enjoy the Spotify service will be prompted to re-enter their credentials. Android users will be prompted to perform an app upgrade, and although the upgrade isn’t forced, it’s highly recommended you download and install before use.

It’s worth mentioning, installing applications on your Android device from sources over than Google Play or the Amazon Appstore is a bad idea. Which one small exception, in this case, you can also download the latest Android app from https://m.spotify.com

Once Android users have finished downloading an installing the latest update, they will then have to download any offline playlists once again.

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Latest Android security flaw allows access to camera

Android

AndroidThis morning Android users around the world are waking to an announcement potentially putting their privacy at risk. In an announcement that seems all too common around the Android OS yet another security flaw has been discovered. This particular issue is based around potential to acquire unrestricted access to any Android devices camera.

Szymon Sidor recently posted a blog post exposing the latest threat to Android users. The vulnerability could potentially allow malicious applications access to get access to and use the camera for both video and photos.

Although the SDK doesn’t allow use of the camera without a preview window on the device’s screen, its seemingly possible to make this window 1 pixel wide by 1 pixel high.. Thus making it almost impossible for the end-user to see. Whats more, with the pixel on the screen – even when the device is powered off the app is still capable of capturing photo and video footage! Once the footage has been captured, the Android SDK allows quick and easy upload to websites or services, so the malicious app developer could immediately start capturing and uploading photos and video without your knowledge.

However this would should up in the data usage charts on your Android device.

Check out Szymon’s video below:

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDzs6y4JVok[/embedyt]

There are many guides available on the net on how to secure your Android device, there are however some simple things to remember:

  • Make sure your Android device is always up to date
  • Consider applications carefully that request access to your camera – do they really need access..?
  • Keep an eye on apps that run in the background
  • Ensure you use 2 factor authentication on your Google account

Privacy has always been somewhat of a concern around the Android OS, however, used with forethought in can be just as safe and secure as any other OS.

Now the news is out I am sure Google will be working as fast as possible to remedy this security flaw.

For a list of all current known Android Security Flaws check the CVE Details site

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