smartphones and (lack of) security

[Curt]

mostly translated by Google:

Every three Danish home now houses a so-called smartphone - a sophisticated mobile phone that functions as a mini computer. But less than five percent protects it from hackers and viruses! In comparison, 90 percent protects their computer.

The punched security and increasing penetration gets a number of IT security experts to warn that targeted attacks on Danish smartphones is imminent. It can cost owners their credit card information, codes for private e-mail accounts, and at worst can be milked their accounts via online banking.

"Where the Danes earlier walked around with a simple phone in the pocket, they now have a computer. And because the sensitive informations, that criminals are hunting for, are stored on that computer, our security has become markedly worse", says associate professor at the IT University and hacking specialist Joseph Kiniry.

Free games on smartphones
There are already several examples of Danish credit card informations, e-mail codes, and passwords for, say, Facebook, showing up for sale on the Internet. And Joseph Kiniry's concern is shared by security experts that monitors the Danish population's vulnerability on the Internet, and the Danish telecom operators and manufacturers of security solutions.

- In the physical world, we are accustomed to someone always is protecting us. On smartphones, there is preliminary free games for criminals, said Michael Dahl Politiken.

He is the country responsible for Denmark for a world-leading antivirus company, F-Secure.

The Danes have been so active on the Internet via their small smart phones, that data traffic increased by 86 percent, from first to second half of 2010

-Politiken (Danish newspaper), Saturday

Have you secured your smartphone?

[Renegade]

Have you secured your smartphone?

-Curt (June 03, 2011, 04:57 PM)

Yep. Using ALYac on my Android.

http://global.alyac.com/

[Stoic Joker]

Yep. Using ALYac on my Android.

-Renegade (June 03, 2011, 08:19 PM)

ALYac? Never heard of it ... How's it do on a PC?

[Renegade]

Yep. Using ALYac on my Android.

-Renegade (June 03, 2011, 08:19 PM)

ALYac? Never heard of it ... How's it do on a PC?

-Stoic Joker (June 03, 2011, 10:06 PM)

Its' from ESTsoft -- the same people that make ALZip and ALTools. (I used to work for them.)

The basic premise for ALTools is to be fast and easy to use. Development efforts focus there (a lot goes into performance). They don't offer massively advanced features that you'll likely never use. However, they do have pretty much everything you will use, with the added advantage of that functionality being stupidly simple to use. e.g. Compare ALZip to the "file manager" style of compression utility -- ALZip is FAR easier to use.

ALYac uses 2 AV engines and is very fast. I'll leave it to you to decide how it does. It is free in Korea, but I think the international versions are paid with a trial. ($25.99)

http://global.alyac....m/home/security.aspx

One nice thing they have is their own "false positive" system, so they can avoid those annoyances.

I really believe that they have the right idea for 99% of people. Make stuff easy, but keep the power.

They have 50% of the Korean AV market now, and they just launched ALYac before I left ESTsoft. So, it's not been very long. They even managed to kill off Naver's attempts to get into the AV market. That's no small feat if you know the Korean market.

[Stoic Joker]

Cool. I noticed that they're working on a (coming soon) basic version ... Any chance it'll be free?

[Renegade]

Cool. I noticed that they're working on a (coming soon) basic version ... Any chance it'll be free?

-Stoic Joker (June 03, 2011, 11:32 PM)

Hmmm... I'm wondering what I can and cannot say... So let me speak in generic terms instead and leave it for you to divine the meaning. (Sorry, but I believe that I'm still under NDA for some things -- not sure, so I'll err on the side of caution. It's easier than checking.)

They're using 2 different AV engines. i.e. They license them. Those companies can create conditions for the use of the engines, so you can imagine different clauses that could include non-competition for certain market segments, pricing, royalties, up front fees, and market segmentation. ESTsoft has to abide by their licensing agreement, so if there are royalties or market sector stipulations, that could prevent them from offering a free version.

I don't think that clears things up, but it at least puts forth a set of typical possibilities that you find in software licensing at that level.

Just to be clear -- those things that I mentioned above are typical restrictions that you find in software licenses. Nothing in there is specific to ESTsoft or the AV engine companies. I just put them out there as examples of things that could restrict ESTsoft's ability to make ALYac free.

[4wd]

Yep. Using ALYac on my Android.

http://global.alyac.com/

-Renegade (June 03, 2011, 08:19 PM)

Bah!  WVGA+ only

[Ath]

Bah!  WVGA+ only

-4wd (June 04, 2011, 11:21 AM)

Yeah, that's to be expected, a virusscanner that requires a high-resolution display, right... what a foolish design error

[Curt]

[Android] Best free anti-virus | Best Free Android Apps | dotTech

[phitsc]

I don't like this at all. I don't want my phone to require anti-virus software!

[Stoic Joker]

I don't like this at all. I don't want my phone to require anti-virus software!

-phitsc (June 06, 2011, 06:43 AM)

+1 What's next the toaster? Drive through a bad neighborhood and your car conks out cause it got a bugg from an infected traffic signal? How about driving over a cliff because a pop-up add for applesauce blocked the windshield in a turn ... This really is getting ridiculous.

[phitsc]

... How about driving over a cliff because a pop-up add for applesauce blocked the windshield in a turn ... This really is getting ridiculous.

-Stoic Joker (June 06, 2011, 06:52 AM)

I guess this one can be dealt with by installing AddBlockPlus in your car   (just make sure your car supports plugins!)