Indvidual digitial Safety.

Angry Dog

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Good day everyone,

I hope you are all doing well,

This post will be much like my old posts about CPU's being hacked but this time it is not just the CPUs.

To date i still maintain that the user is the weakest link in digital safety. However i do no longer believe this to be true. I must rethink and consider my outlook on computers in general and what i would consider to be safe working practices.

please find source: Flaw in Qualcomm modems enables backdoor for hackers to record your phone calls

How many of us have two factor authentication on our phones? How many of us have a actual antivirus on our phones? How much do you know about the apps living on your phone? What are they accessing and how legitimate are they?

The reality is the exploit exist but as i understand it the user must install software that can access the flaw and then only is the device and the user truly in trouble. However I do not understand the situation fully so I don't really know if this is true or not.

Naturally i did a factory reset, installed the latest updates and locked my phone down. I only installed software I personally trusted and forgo all the nice stuff for now. But that is not to say my phone is now magically exempt from this exploit.

The reality is, I now no longer can trust my mobile device, this means everything I use it for is moot and that is a BIG problem for me.

Am I right to mistrust my mobile device? Should I even invest in any future mobile device or do I go back to a basic device that has no internet ability?

The question here is, How much money is going into security research? How many component level security risks is on our phones?

What can we as users do?

Because according to the source above "30% of all smartphones use Qualcomm chipsets and are thus potential targets of the exploit. " that is a lot of phones...

Companies pushes new mobile products seemingly all the time. So will future phones be safe? If so for how long?

All this said, now as a customer I must look at:

AMD INTEL and now Qualcomm as companies that cannot be trusted and will try to avoid any future use of any of these devices. This is scary to me, because we are running out of options fast.

So the question is what do we sacrifice? Can we even keep our stuff safe?

Well can we?

I feel having my phone on Lock-down with only the apps i trust from companies i trust is a insignificant step.

Why?

Because they "the companies" have to use the same compromised hardware we do, so how secure can they be?

Final source: US fuel pipeline hackers 'didn't mean to create problems'

My closing thoughts are if someone with Billions in funds can't keep their stuff safe what hope do we have?

In the end, isolating my work PC from everything. No connection whatsoever. Is a start. Running virtual computers for network purposes is a option and solution for now. Keeping backups up to date on Optical media is a solution for now. Having a dedicated computer loaded with a trusted antivirus and making bootible scan tool from it to scan my other systems is a solution.

Perhaps i am over-complicating my life, but in the end I have to remember my clients expect me to keep myself protected. I cannot ignore this fact.

But as of today i feel we just entered a new world of personal digital security. My new attitude towards tech will be "it is compromised to the bone so keep use to a minimal and do what i can to protect myself.


truly scary times.
 


This is not related to General Linux, but rather to do with smart phones.

I am moving it to Off Topic.

Wizard
 
This is not related to General Linux, but rather to do with smart phones.

I am moving it to Off Topic.

Wizard
I am so sorry i actually don't post on here because i get it wrong all the time. Just delete it. I am way to stupid to use Linux forums.
 
Well, we could have an Android section. It is technically a LInux-based OS.

Note: I don't actually want said sub-forum. No, no I do not.
 
I guess you are wondering why the Linux Forum ?

Well for years now Linux have been almost impervious to most attacks the net has to offer. That is not to say it is100% safe, we all know that is not the case with any OS but why Linux?

Simple truth is Linux is addible and have proven itself robust and above all Linux offer software solutions and functionality that is simply not found in other operating systems. So i thought it would be a good place to start.

See Linux developers know the challenges and its many aspects but sometimes they must also adapt. Now if we look at Android OS and what it is, and we Look at Tizen as but one example it might be time for the community to step it up again.

Why?

because no one else seem to be able to do so. All of us use Linux because we trust it, I personally enjoyed Android OS because i use to trust it. But now it is the device that is compromised and once again we have to look at creative ways to patch this security problem.

It is true that Android is Linux based so who better to take a look at these problems then the Linux community?

Perhaps it is time to pull Android back into the Linux family? Android has a massive development platform, now imagine if some of it can be adopted by Linux users ? Both mobile and desktop?

See this is where Apple is above everyone at this point. They know factually they need to make their software to run on any Apple device and is literally working towards this goal.

Why? Because then their developers can be focused on what is basically a single platform, thus updates and patches can be pushed a lot faster. Workflow can be improved and with that the user experience.

Simply put we are in a rat race and If Linux, Android is to survive they better take a page out of Apple's book. Because i see more and more companies moving over to Apple. They do this because apple is offering something they like and will soon be widely adopted for the work at home future.

Make no mistake, These security bugs in our hardware will be with us for many many years. But Linux and its community knows the value of security, privacy and functionality.

This is i feel the best place to post this.

The choice is yours, is your future going to be Apple or Linux? Imagine the resources we can enjoy if we make integration possible between Android and Linux and allow any app to run on anything like Apple soon will.

You know it is the future and I know it is the future. Difference is i am nothing just someone that is trying to find my way as a developer... But surely i am not the only one that sees what is happening right?

I say this again and Android desktop install with all its functionality IS the future BUT IF Linux can share its core functionality with this migration then it enjoys developers from all sides and in my opinion that will be the the decisive factor moving forward.

Just saying... Think about it... seriously think about it.
 
I personally enjoyed Android OS because i use to trust it.
Sorry but I have never trusted smart phones or tablets running the same OS. not one of them are secure and no matter what you do , will never be secure, why? its not so much the hardware, but the number of back doors you can't close, and the amount of personal information they collect and distribute,
Ask most under 30's to carry an tractable Id card and they will object, yet they will have Facebook on all the time posting to their home page that they are at XXXXX, if they download a new app and it says this app will require access to your phone book, history or anything else of a personal nature 90% will click OK without even a glimmer of a thought as to why.

Bwiz
 
Sorry but I have never trusted smart phones or tablets running the same OS. not one of them are secure and no matter what you do , will never be secure, why? its not so much the hardware, but the number of back doors you can't close, and the amount of personal information they collect and distribute,
Ask most under 30's to carry an tractable Id card and they will object, yet they will have Facebook on all the time posting to their home page that they are at XXXXX, if they download a new app and it says this app will require access to your phone book, history or anything else of a personal nature 90% will click OK without even a glimmer of a thought as to why.

Bwiz

Family of mine is 14 years or age and this individual refuse to use any social service because online toxicity is a real thing. this person does use software that they can control and have learned me a great deal actually.

As for a phone tracking us? That is the point i am making here and why the Linux community should consider adopting Android and improving it. By definition they will make it more secure and give it much more functionality and is why i started writing about this actively.

It is my hope to stimulate enough thought that those that can do this, consider doing it.

As for current security. It is very hard to remote into a mobile phone and almost always require some software unless there is a Android RAT that exist?

Other then that it is worth considering that Google will not allow your phone to work with google play without a google account. Why is it that so many companies agreed to this ? Simply put, they know that Google has a ton of developers freelance and otherwise trying to earn a few. That software is plentiful.

That said, We are entering a situation where software verification will become a key factor. Meaning software that is proven to be safe, supported and functional. See this happening already but i also see a lot of people walking away from the platform for many reasons.

But it all comes back to security and it seems that things will be the same as before android even existed.

Maybe it is time for the Linux community to put differences aside and make a short list of what must be done.

Example:

Secure Android.
Create Android OS for desktop.
Make existing Linux software functional on Android desktop.
Make Android software functional "to a degree if possible" on the Android desktop.

Allow the desktop to communicate to other devices and push what is on one device to the other via cloud solution. This can even be Google email service and if one is clever can do a lot more then just push notifications and a few files around. "more on this later" As i said i am new to the developer world.

But all in If we don't put aside our personal views Linux and Android can never truly become one. That will be the worst thing that can happen to both.

Simple truth is IF Apple is successful then i doubt the work place will remain a mesh of Microsoft, Android and Linux. It boils down to support. Why would you want to support these 3 options when you can just have the one?

See in the end, Apple will win this because they are offering a universal solution and being someone that saw the the adoption of WinNT to the creation and adoption of cloud i can see this happening.

The only way to remain relevant is for the community to create and innovate along the same path. Then and only then will relevance be maintained.

But at this point i digress. I am sure people will move on and go on. But in the end the future will happen exactly as it should and not a thing will be out of place.

But yea if i was AMD, Intel, Android Nvidia and Microsoft, i would be worried. I would be very worried. One thing Apple is very good at and that is to push out ardware dependencies. Ask Nvidia... Ask Intel...

Imagine for a moment if Apple is the only brand that offers security, device integration and security? Well yea... i doubt any business will work with the others unless it is an Enterprise environment.

Well i guess it is time to save up for that Apple Mini after all... ... ...
 
Create Android OS for desktop.
there are several projects to port Android to Linux www.android-x86.org is probably the oldest, every so often i take the latest offering for a test run but it's still very glitch and only supports a narrow selection of hardware

Bwiz
 

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