Malware on the Android platform!

[john_spiral]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...t-apps-malware

Looks like Google needs to do some serious security work on the Android platform. From a link off the above post looks like the malware got root from an exploit of android's init/udev mechanism.

Too much time counting money not enough time on code quality.

[chriswyatt]

Also part of the responsibility goes to the user who downloads said app. A vulnerability was bound to be exposed sooner or later.

I don't know how sloppy the vulnerability was but Google couldn't possibly think of every possibility and someone's bound to find a hole somewhere, they always do.

[aysiu]

A trojan is a trojan is a trojan. If you give the user any kind of freedom about what to install, the user can be stupid and install malware.

I also think Apple's vetting of the app store is overrated. Remember that kid who snuck a tethering app into the app store under the guise of it being a flashlight app? Apple didn't catch that one until it had been leaked into the press.

Users need to stop relying on Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. to play "big brother" and protect them. They need to use common sense.

If you gave your car keys and registration to a carjacker, would you blame Toyota or Ford for selling you an easily stolen car?

[themarker0]

You can perfectly secure a system, it is possible

It becomes insecure once a user touches it.

[forrestcupp]

Too much time counting money not enough time on code quality.

You can't have it both ways. You can either have it like the Android market where it's open development and anyone can enter their apps without having to wait on approval, or like the iTunes app store where devs are forced to follow Apple's strict regulations and just hope at the chance to get approved if your app happens to be what Apple is looking for.

How can you blame Google when they're gracious enough to allow anyone to develop apps without micromanaging them?

[aysiu]

You can't have it both ways. You can either have it like the Android market where it's open development and anyone can enter their apps without having to wait on approval, or like the iTunes app store where devs are forced to follow Apple's strict regulations and just hope at the chance to get approved if your app happens to be what Apple is looking for.

How can you blame Google when they're gracious enough to allow anyone to develop apps without micromanaging them?

I disagree.

Apple has random arbitrary guidelines about what is approved or not. (It's too adult, it duplicates core functionality, it's too political, etc.)

Google has no guidelines.

It would be quite simple for Google's guideline to simply be "Cannot be malware."

[tgalati4]

Don't be evil.

[lisati]

You can perfectly secure a system, it is possible

It becomes insecure once a user touches it.

The most secure system I know of is one which gets buried somewhere out of reach, disconnected from absolutely everything it is capable of being connected to. Dismantling it and encasing the parts in concrete as an extra precaution won't hurt either.

[themarker0]

The most secure system I know of is one which gets buried somewhere out of reach, disconnected from absolutely everything it is capable of being connected to. Dismantling it and encasing the parts in concrete as an extra precaution won't hurt either.

In three hundred years there still will be someone stupid enough enough to dig it up and put an infected usb key in it...

[mmsmc]

the safest computer is the one that blew up in the atomic bomb testing