Google has pulled more than 20 malicious applications from the Android Market, bringing the total number of apps removed this year to over 100.

The malware that was bundled with the removed apps has been dubbed “RuFraud.” It sends text messages to premium rate phone numbers, incurring charges for users and accruing profits for those who reap the revenue of the numbers. The malware was written not to affect users in the US, but users in several European countries and in Asia are affected.

Source - http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222595/Google_pulls_22_more_malicious_Android_apps_from_Market?taxonomyId=17

money.cnn.com

What are your thoughts?

April 18, 2011 — Computerworld — A flaw in Skype for Android could let criminals harvest private information from smartphones, including the user’s name and email address, contacts and chat logs, the Internet calling software maker confirmed Friday.

One security researcher called it “sloppy coding” and a “disrespect for your privacy.”

Last week, Justin Case, a regular contributor to the Android Police blog, disclosed that Skype on Android does not block access to a number of sensitive data files stored on the handset.

The files contain a wealth of information about the Skype account and the smartphone’s owner, ranging from full name and date of birth to alternate phone numbers and account balance. Also accessible, said Case, are instant chat logs and all Skype contacts.

“Skype mistakenly left these files with improper permissions, allowing anyone or any app to read them,” said Case. “Not only are they accessible, but [they're] completely unencrypted.”

Case created an Android application that demonstrated retrieving the unsecured data, and warned that hackers could do the same.

“A rogue developer could modify an existing application with code from our proof of concept, distribute that application on the [Android] Market, and just watch as all that private user information pours in,” Case said.

Click here for more on this.

How important is cyberspace? It is hardly possible to overstate it. The internet is an engine of immense wealth creation, a force for openness, transparency, innovation and freedom. Without it, generators stop turning, phones fall silent, critical goods sit on loading docks. Without confidence in the integrity of financial data or health information, the economy trembles. Without connectivity, tens of thousands of communities disappear from view; a deployed solider cannot see her daughter’s swim victory, a multiple sclerosis patient is unable to confer with others about the latest medications, and first responders face an unknown chemical spill untethered.

Cyberspace functions as the very endoskeleton of modern life. So it’s no surprise that when bad actors emerge to exploit or threaten it — whether profit-driven criminals, electronic saboteurs or international espionage rings — there’s a temptation to define the threat in the strongest and simplest terms. These days, some observers are pounding out a persistent and mounting drumbeat of war, calling for preparing the battlefield, even saying that the United States is already fully into a “cyberwar,” that it is, in fact, losing.

For more on this story, please click here.

The girl walks down the road.

I bet all of you are having different pictures in your mind.  What does this girl look like?  What kind of road is she walking down?  Where is she going? Now, read what I’d change this to.

I look out my window this morning, and see a blonde-haired girl.  Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, she walks down the busy street, bustling with people.  She is heading to work, coffee in hand, trying not to spill on her light-colored suit.

That’s why I’m a writer.  Writing is more than just sitting behind a desk, researching and typing.  Writing is painting a picture, a vivid one, for the reader.  Take this blog for instance.  I could have said, this morning we drank coffee, and had a meeting.  I checked my e-mails.  And that would have been it.  Pretty boring morning.  Instead, you know what type of coffee I had, the general mood of the day, and the great meeting I attended.   That’s just a small peek into a writer’s perspective.  What else will you learn in the next blog?

Nicole

1. New York Red Bulls
2. Bristol Palin
3. Bastille Day 2010
4. Is Lindsay Lohan Dead?
5. July 14^th
6. Kristi Lynn Gibson
7. The Hills Finale
8. Molly Norris
9. Elyse Taylor
10. Javier Bardem

Check it out now! -  Erie County virtual historical police museum.