Apple's Developer site is often found to have left security holes within its infrastructure, and while the Cupertino outfit tries its utmost to ensure these flaws are few and far between, it's the nature of the beast that every now and again, problems must be dealt with. Over the weekend, the Dev Center went offline for maintenance works, but while this is a frequent occurrence - particularly given that new iOS releases are almost always dished out on a Monday - the purpose this time around was to fix an issue that leaked private info of accounts all the way up to CEO Tim Cook.
Security isn't the kind of thing you should play fast and loose with, and the same goes for security online. In a day and age where we manage almost all of our lives on the Internet, having a computer, phone or tablet that's potentially open to mischievous entities is far from ideal, but that's the position users of Internet Explorers find themselves in today.
Security is a hot button topic right now, and with good reason. With government agencies trying to scoop your data just as much as the cyber criminals we're all told keep sniffing our credit card details, gone are the days of simply burying our heads in the sand and hoping it'll all be OK.
Google has just announced via the official Android blog that it is in the process of rolling out some additional security mechanisms to the world's most popular mobile operating system. The blog post, which was written and published by an Android security engineer by the name of Rich Cannings, gives a brief overview on some of Android's existing security based positives before continuing to announce that the newly added features will boost the already existing Verify Apps functionality in the going fight against malicious content.
Even though the Play Store is moderated to ensure that dodgy, malicious apps don't make it through the gates and onto people's devices, it's not a completely foolproof system. Virus Shield, a relatively new app that claimed to protect users from viruses and other such non-niceties, has scammed many folks out of their money because, at $3.99 a pop, it didn't actually provide any speakable anti-virus features. Although it has since been ousted by the search giant after being exposed, it remains to be seen whether the 10,000+ customers that parted with the substantial sum will see any kind of refund.
Android's biggest weakness may be the huge numbers in which smartphones running the software have sold, but it's fairly safe to say at this point that phones and tablets running various flavors of Android are less than secure. In fact, the hacking of Android-powered devices is such a problem that it's been the beneficiary of plenty of attention from the security fraternity.
Such is the open source nature of the Android ecosystem, that it presents itself as an attractive prospect to malware makers, and other such unscrupulous entities. It's often the case that potentially dodgy apps circulate outside of the confines of the Google Play Store, and thus, by avoiding third-party download services, Android users can remain relatively safe. However, renowned security firm Trend Micro has just discovered a new type of bug that can secretly turn devices into digital currency miners, and worryingly, at least two Play Store apps are thought to have been affected.
A new Remote Administration Tool for Google’s Android platform has become available in the darkest corners of the Internet. This particular type of tool is bundled into a malware package that has the ability to claim control of the devices of those who use an app that has been infected, effectively turning the unwitting smartphone or tablet into a spyware zombie.
It hasn’t been a great week for Apple in terms of security. The Cupertino company is currently coming under heavy fire for a SSL security issue that was recently discovered to be present in both iOS and OS X. The software vulnerability, which is being referred to as the "goto fail" has the potential to provide malicious individuals with the ability to intercept and record data that the user believes to be secure. In addition to the "goto fail" flaw, it is now being reported that an issue has been found in iOS that makes the iPhone and iPad firmware susceptible to stealth key logging activities.
Apple's latest breed of iOS devices do a fairly comprehensive job of ensuring that our data is protected. The long-standing Passcode feature has recently been beefed up and complimented with the introduction of Touch ID on the iPhone 5s, meaning that it's now even more difficult for malicious individuals to get access to what's on our iPhone. But what about if you require a method of determining whether or not a friend, family member, colleague or lifelong enemy has been tampering and interacting with your iPhone or iPod touch behind your back? There's now an app for that on the iOS App Store called Catchr.
