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Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

phys.org

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Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#41

Post by rhinoceraptor »

capsulecorp wrote: post #39
privateSFacct wrote: post #34

Whenever I read about Greenpeace attacking apple for their phones I laugh. The number of Android models, made with far more toxic materials, never updated and so obsoleted much earlier (check out secondary market for 4 year old phones to see this) is far higher and with a much bigger enviro impact than iphones. Despite claims apple purposely obsoletes its phones, it actually has a FAR FAR better record of updating ol…

>which extends the life of old phones. Except they were caught purposely throttling older phones with those updates, not exactly what i'd call extending life.

> purposely throttling

So that the phones don't randomly shut off because their lithium ion batteries were old. Yes, they should have told people but it wasn't done maliciously.

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#42

Post by jethro_tell »

benburleson wrote: post #40
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because carriers have a tremendous fear of being simple data pipes.

Is there really some expectation for a carrier to be more than that? I just want a fast, reliable service that connects my phone to the internet. Is there actually profit in providing more than that?

well there's usually a bundle of shit in a carrier OS, it's just not profit from you.

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#43

Post by paulcarroty »

komali2 wrote: post #2

> Google already fixed at least one of the Android exploits used by "Agent Smith," nicknamed Janus, in 2017 but the fix hasn't made its way onto every Android phone. It's a potent reminder that millions of phones around the world are being used without the latest security measures. Because Samsung (or similar) or even more weirdly, Sprint (or similar) just doesn't fucking update our Android versions for months, or ev…

> Google already fixed at least one of the Android exploits used by "Agent Smith,

Google can't fix it due to Android fragmentation. Millions of devices will never get this update.

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#44

Post by GeekyBear »

thanatos_dem wrote: post #17
jimmaswell wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

better than ios updates making the phone unusable. happened to me on old ipod touch models, not even the battery thing.

> Not even the battery thing. That was an attempt at graceful degradation that wasn’t communicated well. The general belief was that having a phone that runs a bit more slowly, but consistently used it’s battery as the battery life naturally degrades is better than a phone suddenly dying with 40% battery remaining if the peak power draw exceeds what a several year old lithium ion battery can produce. I much prefer th…

In the class action lawsuit against Google, Nexus 6P customers said their devices were shutting off unexpectedly while reporting that the battery still had a 60% charge.

>In April of last year, a class action investigation began concerning Google, Huawei, and the Nexus 6P bootlooping issues. Many users were reporting issues with the Nexus 6P shutting down randomly, even when the battery was showing up to 60% charge.

https://www.xda-developers.com/google-huawei-nexus-6p-class-...

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#45

Post by wyldfire »

benburleson wrote: post #40
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because carriers have a tremendous fear of being simple data pipes.

Is there really some expectation for a carrier to be more than that? I just want a fast, reliable service that connects my phone to the internet. Is there actually profit in providing more than that?

From the carrier: yes.

The phone subsidies (in the US at least) are very reminiscent of the old leased phones of yore.

But if you look at the actions of mobile phone carriers and ISPs they're desperate not to become dumb pipes. They design all kinds of clever mechanisms and marketing strategies to distinguish themselves.

> Is there actually profit in providing more than that?

Well, in a free market, competition is intense. So if they can find ways to distort that, then yes: they will make more money. Many of us don't have much allegiance to particular gas station brands. But they create rewards programs to try and get some of that loyalty. Otherwise you just compete on price.

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#46

Post by ndesaulniers »

scarface74 wrote: post #22
komali2 wrote: post #2

> Google already fixed at least one of the Android exploits used by "Agent Smith," nicknamed Janus, in 2017 but the fix hasn't made its way onto every Android phone. It's a potent reminder that millions of phones around the world are being used without the latest security measures. Because Samsung (or similar) or even more weirdly, Sprint (or similar) just doesn't fucking update our Android versions for months, or ev…

That’s the problem. Why should your carrier have any say so in updating your operating system? If I buy a computer from Best Buy, I don’t have to wait for them to push an update to Windows.

Good question. When a phone stops working, people want their money back. Guess where most people in most markets buy their phone from?

Further, who do you think customer's call for support?

Now you know why carriers are hesitant about frequently updating a product they've already made a sale on. If an update breaks something, guess who pays the price?

Not defending them, and it's not the only reason, but it's a big one.

Whether or not they should have a say is a great question. Now that they do, I'm not sure it can be taken away without them simply choosing the next os that they do have more say over.

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#47

Post by scarface74 »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #30
scarface74 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the problem. Why should your carrier have any say so in updating your operating system? If I buy a computer from Best Buy, I don’t have to wait for them to push an update to Windows.

Because carriers have a tremendous fear of being simple data pipes.

Apple pushed the carriers to allow it to update its own operating systems over a decade ago.

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#48

Post by circular_logic »

deepsun wrote: post #4

What ad blocking for Android to would recommend?

DNS66, Works without root by creating a local VNM that it then runs its own DNS (with blocklists) on. End results are all the banner adds on most apps will not show up etc.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.jak_linux.dns66/

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#50

Post by txcwpalpha »

benburleson wrote: post #40
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because carriers have a tremendous fear of being simple data pipes.

Is there really some expectation for a carrier to be more than that? I just want a fast, reliable service that connects my phone to the internet. Is there actually profit in providing more than that?

Being just a dumb data pipe means you aren't differentiated from other dumb data pipes, making it harder to compete with other carriers on anything other than price (reducing revenue) and service reliability/speed (and we all know how awful ISPs are at building out better infrastructure). This does make it much harder to be profitable.
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