Our Blog, January, 2012
Avon and Somerset Police Recommend Tracking Software
Thursday, January 12th, 2012Acting Detective Inspector Caroline Stainer of Avon and Somerset Police said “Tracking software is another powerful tool in the fight against thieves.”
She also added “I would recommend people make use of the software that is available to download on computers and some smart phones, which can be activated remotely to find the location of your device if it ever goes missing.”
“The victim rang us and it carried on giving real time updates, which allowed us to use it in investigations.”
These statement comes after a student was able to track and take a photo of a thief who had stolen her laptop. A court heard on Tuesday how the laptop was snatched in a burglary in Bristol on August 20 last year.
Police in Bristol also revealed that three smartphones had been recovered in the last two months thanks to similar tracking technology.
Source: The Sun
Posted in Latest News | No Comments »Coming Soon: Malware Superhero
Thursday, January 12th, 2012Microsoft say that “One in 14 downloads from the internet may now contain malware code”. With millions of apps downloaded to smartphones each day, that can be quite a worrying figure. Especially as you don’t always know the author of an app.
Android is open-source, meaning most software developers can create an app and upload it to the marketplace if they’d like. These days software developers aren’t confined to the depths of Microsoft offices or Apple offices. Your next door neighbour could be coding apps from his living room or the teenager a few doors down could be coding apps from his bedroom. Not all apps are written by trustworthy sources, and some can be very malicious indeed.
Malware Superhero will offer a range of features to ensure that the user is aware of potential malware apps that they have downloaded or are about to download. It will scan the apps on the device and notify the user of malware presence and aid the user in removing any malware found.
Malware isn’t the only worry of having a smartphone. Ever connected to a free Wi-Fi service at the airport or in a cafe? These networks are unsecured, meaning anyone can connect to them. The guy sitting across from you with that laptop he’s working on is connected to the same network, availing of the free internet access. But he’s not doing work away from office, he’s scanning the network for other devices that may be sending data to and from the same network. Do you use Facebook on your phone, or even use internet banking? These apps send data to and from the network to access the internet. But because the network is unsecure, the guy sitting across the way with his laptop can intercept this data using a few hacking tools readily available on the internet. That’s not good news.
With access to your Facebook account, he may as well know everything there is about you including your name, date of birth, family members and friends, and possibly even your daily schedule. Do I even have to explain what he could be doing with your banking data?
Malware Superhero will also have unsecured Wi-Fi protection. The user will receive an alert when the device connects to an unsecured Wi-Fi network. The user can also set an unsecure Wi-Fi network as “Safe” if they are aware the network is unsecure so no more notifications will be received about that network.
