Up to 5 million Droids infected

Smart smartphone owners know there's only one worth owning:

 

Sure, there are several options out there now. And it's not just Droids - iPhone too.

I have a set of things in life that I have dubbed "universal truths." These are things (in my experience) that DO and WILL HAPPEN regardless of whether someone chooses to be in denial or to ignore them. They run the gamut of subjects (from women to Harley's to business, aging, yada yada...) A few of them involve technology and here is the one that fits the subject of this thread:

"Any piece of technology that can possibly be modded or hacked for the purposes of enhancing its capabilities, or to exploit other owners of such technology for monetary or twisted self-satisfaction reasons - WILL BE. The more universally popular that technology is, the higher number of attackers will be trying."

And as far as "where do you find one" I have been very impressed with a program called "MyLookout" for iPhone and Android. It is free in the Android Appstore so I assume it is also free in the Apple store. It is lightweight and has two other features that I have used multiple times: Where's my phone" and "Make it scream" on those occasions that I seem to have misplaced it.

One word of advice on MyLookout - Don't use the "Make it Scream" feature on Christmas morning if you left your phone at your sister's house on Christmas Eve. Just sayin...

 

Don posting on a Sat?

Mark

 

Figured I'd warm the home computer up for a bit to get it ready for the demands of Battlefield 3...

 

She already had several that she developed 30 years ago when I would duct tape her to stuff and crack eggs on her head.

So she just employed a few of those.

 

Nothing to worry about put your tin foil hats away.

Lookout, a competitor in the Android security field, says that the applications are not malware, and the apperhand package actually is a legitimate, but aggressive, advertisement component. It's part of an advertising software development kit that's a modified version of the "ChoopCheec" platform” or “Plankton” SDK that was the focus of some privacy concerns in June 2011. This newer version is cleaner, but it still has capabilities common to many ad networks. Writes Lookout:

It is capable of identifying the user uniquely by their IMEI number, for instance. But unlike some networks, this SDK forward-hashes the IMEI before sending to its server. They’re identifying your device, but they are obfuscating the raw data. (That's a good thing.) The SDK has the capability to deliver “Push Notification” ads to the user. We’re not huge fans of push notifications, but we also don’t consider push notification advertising to be malware. The SDK drops a search icon onto the desktop. Again, we consider bad form, though we don’t consider this a smoking gun for malware provided the content that is delivered is safe. In this case, it is simply a link to a search engine. The SDK also has the capability to push bookmarks to the browser. In our opinion, this is crosses a line; although we do not believe this is cause to classify the SDK as malware.

Sent from my Xoom using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk

 

I've had a couple of the Andriod smartphone AntiVirus programs, the one I found to work best is called Lookout Security & Anti-Virus. It's pretty cool and Free, there is a "Premium Version" that costs a couple bucks but the free one does everything you need.

It works by scanning your phone periodically, and anytime you try to download a new app, the program runs it through a little test first to see if its clean, and if so it continues to download it. Sounds like it takes a long time, really it doesnt, you hardly even notice its there. Another feature is you can sign up on there website mylookout.com and if you loose your phone or it gets stolen, they have a feature you can activate from the website that locks your phone, and you can even make it squeel, some kind of siren thing goes off on your phone and whoever has it will get a nice little suprise. lol.

So try that guys if your lookin' for a phone AV. Here the Andriod Market site: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lookout&hl=en

 

I got lookout. I like it but it hasn't found anything. My battery life has gone to crap though. That's why I was wondering if something had gotten into it. It was fine, then pretty suddenly the battery will near drain from full to empty overnight.

 

Using antivirus software on android isn't needed. Even Google came out and said these companies are feeding of your fears. Lookout is the only one I use. Also if your battery is dying some thing is running an email app social network app. Batteries in Android sucks that is why I keep my on the charger in the truck and carry a spare.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk