Tag Archives: Android

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Cross Platform Messaging Service Plan Canceled by Mobile Carriers

About eighteen months ago, a number of big mobile carriers got together to create the “Cross-Carrier Messaging Initiative.” Their goal was to roll out a Rich Communication Services (RCS) platform designed to allow for text messaging across a variety of platforms, creating a seamless user experience.

It’s something that sounds simple enough, and it’s a great idea on paper.

Unfortunately, putting that idea into practice is another matter entirely. To date, their efforts to do so have been a disaster. In fact, it’s been such an epic failure that Verizon recently confirmed that the initiative is dead. Eighteen months of concerned effort by some of the biggest names in the mobile business have resulted in essentially nothing.

Originally, RCS was envisioned as being a massive upgrade for SMS, which was born in 1992 and has served since as the default basic carrier messaging service. Unfortunately, SMS hasn’t kept pace, feature-wise with more modern messaging services like Facebook Messenger, iMessage and WhatsApp.

Unfortunately, even RCS as envisioned by the carriers participating in the project still wouldn’t have been as feature rich as the apps mentioned above. However, it would be a step up from SMS and include features like typing information, read receipts, location sharing and presence information.

The single biggest issue with RCS is the fact that since messaging is free, there was never any way to monetize it. That meant that there was no real incentive for the big carriers to put serious resources into the initiative.

Then there’s the fact that Apple never supported the initiative, and without Apple, there’s really not much point in pressing ahead anyway.

If there’s any hope at all, it lies in Google’s 2015 purchase of Jibe, which is a middleware company offering RCS solutions to carriers. That, combined with Google’s recent deal with T-Mobile may make something like RCS a reality, though Google has been keeping their longer-term plans close to the vest.

For the moment though, RCS remains an unrealized dream. That’s a pity.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Be Careful Downloading Clubhouse App On Android

Clubhouse has taken the internet by storm. Or rather, it has taken the iOS ecosystem by storm, since the company has yet to release an Android version of their increasingly popular app.

If you’re not sure what all the fuss is about, Clubhouse is an audio chat app that is invitation only. If you get an invite, you can listen in on and participate in audio chats in real time.

Elon Musk is personally responsible for at least some of the hype surrounding the app, having sung its praises recently in a tweet.

As mentioned, the catch is that the app is only available to iOS users at this point, and there’s a growing demand for it in the Android sphere. Naturally, hackers and scammers, who seldom miss an opportunity, have been flocking to at least pretend to fill the gap, offering what they claim is the long-awaited Android version of Clubhouse.

Naturally, it is no such thing. In fact, those who fall for the hype and install it without doing a bit of due diligence will soon discover that they have, in fact, downloaded the BlackRock Trojan.

If there’s a silver lining to these recent events, it lies in the fact that to this point, the hackers and scammers haven’t managed to get their poisoned wares passed Google’s security, which means that the app isn’t on the Play Store.

Those who download it are getting it from less trustworthy sources. Although security researchers note that the hooks scattered about the web attempting to lure people into downloading it invariably use some variant of “Get it on Google Play” as their hypertext. If a user isn’t paying close attention, that may be sufficient to lull him or her into a false sense of security.

All that to say, there is no Android version of the app yet. Don’t fall for the hype!

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

People Using Mobile Data Instead Of Internet Service Providers

The ongoing pandemic has impacted daily life in the United States in a number of ways, some predictable and others surprising.

On the predictable side, when tens of thousands of employees were asked to work from home, broadband internet connectivity saw a huge surge in use and nearly 80 percent of broadband users upgraded their service to get better speeds.

Unfortunately, the increased demand put a tremendous strain on the broadband providers, many of whom are still, to this day, struggling to respond. As a result, there has been a growing migration away from broadband service, as more than 12 million former broadband customers have canceled their service. They’re opting instead to turn their cellphones into WiFi hotspots and make use of their Cellular data plan.

While that is an effective solution for some, there are a few potential pitfalls to be mindful of. For starters, while high speed connectivity is certainly possible, most cell plans have much tighter data limits than broadband providers do, and if you stream video on a regular basis, you’re likely to run into those caps very quickly if you adopt this strategy.

Closely related to this issue is the fact that while it is possible to upgrade your cellular data plan, it’s usually much more expensive than upgrading your broadband plan.

In addition to that, the issue may not be with your provider, or at least not solely with your provider. If you haven’t yet upgraded your home network to one of the popular mesh network systems, then doing so could see an overall boost in speed, depending on the particulars of your home network and how you use it.

According to research conducted by Parks Associates, more than half of all broadband customers are currently reporting problems of one sort or another with their service. The most common of which is the monthly cost, but other top contenders include slow service speeds, unreliability, poor customer service, and other technical and billing-related issues.

On the other hand, with a growing number of people leaving the broadband ecosystem, this may wind up being a self-correcting problem. If you decide to tough it out, you may find that performance improves over time. Either way, it is an interesting and unexpected development that’s worth watching.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Mobile App Vulnerabilities Found To Leave Data Unsecured

Most apps these days make use of cloud storage in order to minimize their footprint on your device. That’s good in theory, but based on new research from Zimperium, a disappointing percentage of app developers don’t do nearly enough to secure the data they’re housing for you. In fact, the recent study indicated that fully 14 percent of iOS and Android apps that use cloud storage had insecure configurations or were otherwise vulnerable to attacks by third parties.

Naturally, depending on the exact nature of the apps you use, the nature of the data that’s stored within them will vary markedly. Thus, hackers who breach those unsecured cloud storage systems may wind up with little more than your email address and your latest high score on whatever game you’re obsessed with at the moment, or they could wind up with sensitive financial and/or health-related data.

It should be noted though, that even relatively innocent apps like games (that don’t keep much in the way of personal information) often ask for and receive a wide range of intrusive permissions on your device. That means the developers of those apps could be harvesting a lot of more sensitive data you weren’t even aware of.

The study puts the exclamation point on the end of two very important points that are well worth remembering. One, it pays to read every app’s terms of service agreement closely and monitor exactly what permissions every app you install is asking for, and selectively denying that permission if you deem it to be a bit too intrusive for your comfort.

Second, it’s well worth taking a bit of extra time to uninstall any app that you lose interest in and stop using. By keeping it on your device just in case you decide to circle back to it later, you’re increasing your exposure and increasing your risk.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Major Security Issues Found With Popular Android App

Do you use the app “ShareIt?”

It’s one of the most popular apps in the ecosystem, boasting more than a billion downloads from Google’s Play Store and nearly 2 billion downloads overall (including the Windows, iOS and MacOS ecosystems). On top of that, its original creator, Lenovo, preinstalled it on all Lenovo phones, which may have been the means by which you first encountered the app.

All that to say, it’s a hugely popular app and was in the top ten most frequently downloaded titles in 2019, so it has an enormous footprint.

Recently, Trend Micro conducted a security audit of the app, and their findings may make you rethink your use of it. According to the report the company published not long after their research was complete, they found several major security flaws that would allow for arbitrary code execution, which could result in the complete compromise of the target system.

Unfortunately, the security issues stem from a number of unfortunate design decisions that left the software incredibly vulnerable. One example of this is the fact that the app demands extensive permissions that gives it complete control over the entire storage system, access to all media files on the device, the ability to install or delete apps, create accounts, and more.

Adding to the problems with the app is the fact that its ‘private storage’ mechanism is anything but. An analysis of the code reveals that the ‘android:exported’ variable is set to False, but the AndroidGrantUriPermissions variable is set to True, which means that literally any third party entity can gain temporary read/write access to the user’s data.

Trend shared their findings with ShareIt’s development team more than three months ago, and to date, the developers have not patched any of them. So it’s as vulnerable today as it was when Trend first published their report. If you are a current user, you may want to consider uninstalling it until the company tightens up their security.

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