This week’s security snacks:
- Google Pulls The Rug From Underneath Huawei
- Stealing Your Data: First It Was Phones.. Now It’s Drones
- InstaScammed… Private Social Media Details Leaked
Happy munching!
Google Pulls The Rug From Underneath Huawei
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Anti-trust takes on a new level for Huawei with a complete block of Google based services, something of an issue it seems when your handsets run Android.
Huawei has been in the news a lot over the past year, from their CFO being held under accusation of fraud, to security concerns over the use of the companies 5G hardware.
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This week however things changed dramatically for the company, when Google announced it was withdrawing its Android license. This effectively means that services delivered from Google such as Google Apps will be blocked, which causes a security concern over unpatched applications for enterprises. Worse still is the fact that the underlying updates for the Android OS will now be severely limited in their delivery to Huawei devices.
This all comes hot on the heels of President Trump’s order banning US firms from dealing with Huawei. So, if you have just bought one of the company’s new flagship devices, this might have just cost you more than you might have expected. It will be an interesting future for what has become one of the worlds largest cell phone manufacturers.
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For more info on this and how it impacts your visit; https://www.techradar.com/news/googles-huawei-android-restrictions-heres-what-it-means-for-you.
Stealing Your Data: First It Was Phones.. Now Its Drones
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US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued warnings about the potential for Chinese made drones to steal data, infect networks, and more.
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The word drone once conveyed an image of a spy aircraft taking pictures of enemy territories, however, today a new generation of mini consumer drones have become mega business throughout the globe. These devices have famously been sighted at airports, forcing mass air traffic shutdowns, invading people’s privacy, or just delivering that SSD hard disk you needed in a rush from an online retailer. They are of course great fun, enabling people to take photography to the next level, which previously might of cost you a few dollars when hiring a helicopter to do the same job.
Like many of the IoT devices though, security is often overlooked in the pursuit of having the latest and greatest gadget. So picture this. You order a new drone to add to your gadget collection and you connect it to your wireless network. Then it begins to not only stream the camera attached to it, but also seek out devices on your network and deliver malware or send back potentially sensitive information.
This is the reality of the world we live in today, which has led to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issuing guidance on the purchase and use of some devices. You might think that the devices with this type of issue are not the most common brands. However, you might be surprised to find just how much of a household name issue this can be.
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Visit CNN’s site for more information; https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/20/politics/dhs-chinese-drone-warning/index
InstaScammed.. Private Social Media Details Leaked
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If you love social media, sharing your every moment, then hackers love you. What’s more they now might just have your personal details, this time courtesy of Instagram.
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Another week, another long list of email addresses, phone numbers and other personal information finds its way onto the Internet. Instagram users have discovered that their account information, which includes private data, has found its way out to anyone who wants it. Not few a few, 49 million accounts worth to be exact.
This issue appears to be traced back to a Indian social media company, Chtbox, who pay influencers to post sponsored posts on their accounts. The database which has subsequently been pulled offline contained details on well-known celebrities, bloggers and other people of influence.
Facebook, the parent company of Instagram is looking into the issue, which comes only a couple of years since corrected measures were put into place to prevent this type of issue happening following their own internal security breach.
So the next time you hand over lots of personal information about yourself for social or other online purposes, have a think first.
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Read more on in TechCrucnch: https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/20/instagram-influencer-celebrity-accounts-scraped.
