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.
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.