Which is the world's most valuable brand? A number of them should pop into mind like Coca-Cola, Apple and Cartier. The new leader of the pack however is Google taking the slot from Apple based on the recent BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study. With a 32% increase in brand value they were a big mover since last year, while Apple dropped in value over the same period. Other IT names are in the top 10 like Microsoft at third, Facebook at fifth and Amazon at seventh place.
The Flash Keyboard application or app is a perfect example of my previous comments about app permissions and what happens behind the scenes. It has been downloaded over 50 million times by Android users. Remembering that this a keyboard primarily for typing in stuff the permissions include access the camera, GPS and Wi-Fi location data, changing your screen to show advertisements and the termination of background processes. That last one means that theoretically your keyboard app could for example shut down your antivirus software. Sitting quietly in the background the app is also collecting user information including device manufacturer and model or your phone, the IMEI (international mobile equipment identity) number, you phone's GPS coordinates to within 1-3m along with Wi-Fi and MAC data. This information is then sent to servers in the US and China where it is likely used to generate user analytics information for marketing purposes. Theoretically the permissions given could be used to attack a smartphone and even shut it down. If you want to know more this Hong-Kong developed app visit www.pentest.co.uk and read their whitepaper on the subject. Since this issue was reported the app was taken down from Google Play Store and replaced by another under a different name.
Google wants your Android. Actually Google wants you to adopt their proprietary closed-source version. To me this is yet another example of a company, e.g. Microsoft of the past, luring you into their world with free stuff and when enough people have been attracted then step in, take control and close things down. At this point this is somewhat speculative based on reports of a confidential internal project behind doors at Google as reported by technology analyst Richard Windsor.
Compared to Google, Apple can push out the latest version of their iOS to their devices very quickly. Android versions can take months and even years to be updated on devices. According to Mr Windsor, Google has been adding functionality to their own version for some time now and they have the legal leverage to potentially force OEM's to provide Google's version after a court case against Oracle next year. The biggest problem is with GMS (Google Mobile Services), which has been expanding for some time now and is the only real way to support things that we take for granted like location services. A plain or vanilla Android phone like those available in China relies on Google's GMS to provide some very basic functionality. With none of their own to fall back on if Google does make the switch it will certainly leave China for one out in the cold.
The reason the court case with Oracle is a potential trigger is that Oracle could "force" Google to go proprietary. The forcing part comes because Google would have to take back control of their API's taking a potential US$9 billion hit in the process. Users can't rely on Samsung any more either as they handed back control to Google back in January 2014 giving up on their own mapping, browser, search and other items they were working on in what some are calling their "Nokia moment". Not incidentally it was also the day that Samsung and Google announced their 10-year patent agreement.
Today's potential malware story is brought to you by Microsoft and their Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). Dell's SecureWorks team found that someone was misusing this technology when cleaning up at a customer's site on a Windows 7 Server. This happened at a university but there is a warning to server administrators to keep an eye out.
Today's bug after an update story is brought to you by, no not by Apple, Lexus. A recent over-the-air update caused entertainment systems in the Lexus into a cycle of restarts that involved a lot of purple screens reminding those watching it of the old Microsoft blue screen of death. Lexus blamed bad data for the problem and shut down the broadcast that also affected some Toyota 2016 Land Cruisers. The fix is the old "forced reset to clear data". Sadly this does not mean disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it but a visit to the dealer to perform the reset.
Finally for this week quantum encryption. It may now be possible to send quantum-encrypted messages through space and back again while maintaining the encryption. This is important because it can provide a better degree of encryption but mostly because the technology and techniques involved in the process are cool.
James Hein is an IT professional of over 30 years' standing. You can contact him at jclhein@gmail.com.