Tag Archives: Android

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Free Unlimited Storage Ending For Google Photos

For several years now, most of the big tech companies have been using the lure of free to grow their respective user bases. Free unlimited data on phone plans. Free, unlimited storage on cloud drive plans, and the like. Free can get expensive for these firms, however.

Over time, most of them have slowly backed away from that approach, either outright discontinuing their free offerings or putting hard limits on the amount of free space/bandwidth they’re offering.

Google is the latest such company to take that step. They’ve been offering free, unlimited photo storage on their Google Cloud service for more than five years. On June 1st, 2021, that will be coming to an end. You’ll have fifteen Gigs free, and after that, you’ll be charged a premium.

Fifteen Gigs is still quite a lot of photographs, so Google’s revised offering is still quite generous, and note that there is one exception to the new rule. If you’re a Google Pixel owner (any model) you’ll retain free, unlimited photo storage.

The company’s stated reason for the change is to bring their service offering more in line with current industry standards, and that’s completely understandable. Free unlimited is one of those concepts that looks good on paper and sounds amazing. In the end, few, if any companies have pockets deep enough to actually maintain that approach in the long run.

Note that in addition to the coming storage limit change, Google is also implementing a housekeeping rule. If you have a Google Cloud account and you haven’t logged into it for more than two years, and you’re over the new storage limit, then the company will, after making repeated attempts to contact you, start deleting files.

While this might be a bit of a headache for a small percentage of users, honestly, if you haven’t logged on for more than two years, it’s likely that you’ve forgotten you even have an account.

Kudos to Google for making the change, and for the exemption for Pixel owners. It’s a good way to give users of their own phone a nice, high value perk.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Older Android Phones May Have Site Loading Issues In 2021

By now, just about everyone is aware of the importance SSL certificates play in keeping data away from prying eyes on the web. After some scares in recent years, it has thankfully become the standard, and according to Google’s latest statistics, more than 95 percent of the traffic passing through its network is encrypted.

Unfortunately, if you have an older Android device, there’s a fly in the ointment you should be aware of. As of September 1, 2021, a partnership between Let’s Encrypt and IdenTrust is coming to an end. These are just two of a number of encryption authorities on the web, and the end of their partnership is more important than you might think.

Let’s Encrypt only came into being in 2015. In order to gain traction early on, they entered into a partnership with IdenTrust and issued ‘cross-signed’ certificates. Starting on September 1, 2021, the cross-signing feature goes away.

Older platforms, and software that hasn’t been updated since 2016 will see certificate compatibility issues because those systems don’t trust Let’s Encrypt’s root certificate (ISRG Root X1). For Android users, this includes any device running a version older than 7.1.1. Those devices won’t trust a Let’s Encrypt certificate that isn’t cross-signed, because they don’t know they’re supposed to.

According to Google, this is going to impact roughly 34 percent of all Android devices in use today, so it sounds like it’s going to be a major issue. The good news though, is that there’s a relatively simple fix.

Just download and install Mozilla’s Firefox browser on these devices and you’ll avoid the issue entirely because Firefox uses its own root certificate list to validate sites. Even better, between now and then, you can be sure that other browsers will jump on the bandwagon and offer a painless workaround. Still, it’s far better to know what lies ahead than to be taken by surprise.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Some Popular Android Apps Found To Include Malware

Google does an admirable job of keeping its sprawling Play Store free of apps containing malware. Their verification system is world-class.

That said, no system is perfect, and that includes Google’s. In recent months, the company has removed nearly a hundred apps that made it through their various gateways and checkpoints while containing all manner of malware.

Naturally, these were removed as soon as the issue was reported to Google, and now, it has happened again.

Czech antivirus company Avast recently reported that it found adware on 21 different apps on the Play Store. As of the time this article was written, Google has taken most of the offending apps down, but six still remain available to unsuspecting users.

The names of the offending apps are:

  • Shoot Them
  • Crush Car
  • Rolling Scroll
  • Helicopter Attack
  • Assassin Legend
  • Helicopter Shoot
  • Rugby Pass
  • Flying Skateboard
  • Iron It
  • Shooting Run
  • Plant Monster
  • Find Hidden
  • Find 5 Differences
  • Rotate Shape
  • Jump Jump
  • Find the Difference – Puzzle Game
  • Sway Man
  • Money Destroyer
  • Desert Against
  • Cream Trip
  • Props Rescue

As you can tell by the titles, these are games aimed primarily at children. Kids generally aren’t savvy enough to do even the most basic investigation to see whether an app is legit, or if it might be doing something nefarious behind the scenes. The truth is, many adults aren’t tech savvy enough to do that either, which is how these apps are able to infect so many devices.

In any case, check your phone and check the devices your children use to see if any of the apps listed above are installed. If so, then there’s also a piece of malware called “HiddenAds” which will display annoying amounts of unwanted advertising on the device in question until you find the app and remove it.

Kudos to Google for moving swiftly in taking down most of the offending apps, and by the time you read this piece, the odds are excellent that the remaining six offenders will be gone as well.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Mac And Android Added To GravityRAT Malware’s Targets

Malware comes in all shapes and sizes. Some strains copy and encrypt files. Others serve annoying ads.

Still others work quietly in the background, mining this or that cryptocurrency using your computer’s processing power to do it.

GravityRAT is a different sort of creature. It has been actively developed since at least 2015 by Pakistani hacker groups, and has been used primarily against military installations in India. As such, it’s not the sort of malware your IT staff is likely to have a face to face encounter with unless you’re doing contract work with the Indian military. It is interesting, however, and worth taking a closer look at.

GravityRAT was designed primarily to check the CPU temperature of Windows-based machines, and to detect the presence of sandboxes or virtual machines so that its controllers would know what type of environment they were operating in.

Recently though, security researchers at Kaspersky Lab discovered new strains of GravityRAT that are designed to work on both Android and Apple devices. The GravityRAT development team has also been quietly updating the capabilities of their malicious code.

As of the latest build, in addition to the two things above, the malware can:

  • Generate a list of running process
  • Log keystrokes
  • Get basic system information
  • Take screenshots at predefined intervals
  • Scan ports
  • Conduct searchers for certain file extensions
  • Execute arbitrary shell commands

Out of all these, it is the last one that makes GravityRAT genuinely dangerous, as there are any number of exploits the hackers could use here. Clearly, the team is building toward a specific goal, but so far, we can only guess at what that goal might be.

In any case, the latest build of GravityRAT is much more robust than anything that’s come before it, and it’s a good bet that the team is getting close to whatever finish line they have set for themselves. After that, there’s no telling what they might use their new tool for.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Features Of The New Android 11 Phone

If you’re an Android user and you’re interested in getting the latest on offer from the company, Google has announced that they’re ready to release Android 11 to the general public.

As you read these words, the new OS should already be available for Google’s Pixel line (Pixel 2 and newer), OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO and Realme devices.

Here’s a quick preview of some of the new features Android 11 has on offer:

  • If you press and hold the power button on your Android phone, you’ll be able to view your Google Pay cards, along with the details of any Google-Assistant-connected smart home devices.
  • The new OS makes screen recording possible, without the need for a third-party app.
  • New media controls that relocates playback controls from the notification tray to the quick settings panel.
  • Better media playback handling now allows you to change which device your audio is playing on.
  • Bubbles, which are small avatars, now float on top of whatever app or screen you’re on, allowing you to go back to any conversations you’re in.

On top of these additions, the new OS also includes some additional privacy enhancements, including the ability to grant one-time only access to your location, camera or microphone. Each time you open an app that wants to use any of those, you’ll be re-prompted to grant permission for that use only.

Finally, Android 11 improves the way devices handle work and personal profiles. While this won’t matter much to personal users, Enterprise users will cheer, as it provides better separation between the two, preventing your IT admin from accessing any of your personal data.

All told then, there are a raft of good changes here you’ll probably love. Again, by the time you read these words, you’ll probably be able to put your hands on the latest from Google. Check it out at your next convenience!

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