Prophesying the Androidpocalypse at Ars Technica

[anon(9072051)]

I'm not sure what to call this article. A screed? A rant? A jeremiad? Or an extended advertisment for Windows phones?

Still, it's worth a gander for the security-conscious:

Waiting for Android’s inevitable security Armageddon | Ars Technica

 

[tchocky77]

I'm inclined to agree with him. It's literally every month there's some huge vulnerability discovered in Android. It's just a matter of time until someone, somewhere pushes an exploit that does a great deal of harm.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[anon(9072051)]

It's just a matter of time until someone, somewhere pushes an exploit that does a great deal of harm.

Yeah, that seems to be the meme of the day for now. That and the Android "fragmentation" one that Amedeo is riffing on. But I dunno.

Of late, what I see are a number of security firms--Zimperium, Trend Micro & Check Point most recenty--presenting themselves as the saviors of civilization (or at least Androidville) as we know it--via Black Hat 2015--and by extension increasing awareness of the availability of their "free" downloadable apps.

[Because of the politeness restrictions on these forums, I can't really say what I think these folks are doing at BH2015, but it involves guys waving things they think are impressive at one another.]

Even though these firms have apparently discovered these vulnerabilities in their own labs, I don't doubt that the vulnerabilities exist. But by publicizing their "findings," they seem to be doing more to provide road maps for potential hackers (who either didn't know or didn't much care about said vulnerabilities) than anything.

Similarly, I buy Amadeo's basic complaint about "the Android update machine" being "broken" because too many wheels need greased to make that machine efficient. Still, this chatter coated with figures of Armageddon reads like FUD t'me. I'm just not sure what it's really in aid of.

 

[monsieurms]

The question these days is not what's vulnerable, but what isn't. Unfortunately, that last seems like an increasingly small list.

Today, I got a text from a spammer. I had previously disabled auto-retrieve MMS messages re: Stagefright. Then, in Messages App I had to open it to add the sender to a blocklist. Suddenly, I get a message "converting to MMS." But I thought auto-retrieve was disabled? Or, was that not auto retrieve?

Well, hope I'm not screwed. Deleted it. All I could do. And it probably doesn't matter because I'm sure someone will hack my employer and discover all my bank info anyway. This is the way life goes these days.