Android MMS Vulnerability, "Stagefright", Google Regrets G+ and Ouya Purchased by Razer

  Two big news stories for today.  The first story that's been hitting the news waves for many technology news sites is an MMS vulnerability in Android that is estimated to effect around 95% of the Android phones on the market.  The second one which isn't as scary is Google is starting to back track on their social media experiment, G+.

   Announced on July 21 by Zimperium, the named vulnerability "Stagefright" is being referred to the mother of all Android vulnerabilities", also known as a unicorn, has hit the tech news waves hard today (July 27).  I'm not sure why today and not sometime last week it started getting traction, but an article by Android Central goes over the basics and what is known so far about this vulnerability.  Basically, someone can send some code through a MMS video message to your Android phone and they can get full access to said phone.  Unfortunately, we won't know all the details until Zimperium discusses them at the upcoming Blackhat conference.

   Unfortunately, this is a serious bug that has been around since Android 2.2 (currently on 5.01 I believe).  I have yet to find or hear of any solid way to prevent an Android phone from being hit by this, other than to disable auto-processing of MMS message.  There is the possibility that this is being blown out of proportion, such as the big news story last year of the hacker gang that claimed to have over a million hacked accounts in their possession, and it turned out to be just a collection of accounts from previous breaches.  I'm hoping that this is the case, but something tells me it isn't.  Unfortunately, it looks like we'll have to wait to hear more, so be careful of any MMS messages you receive.

   Google is starting the process of separating Google+ from the rest of their products.  I think we can all agree this was only a matter of time.  I commend Google for trying to dethrone Facebook, but it just wasn't meant to be.  From the beginning, people laughed at Google and few really took G+ seriously from go.  It's a big shame Facebook is still the heavyweight in social media... what with all their terrible security practices.  Somehow, they've hurt their user's trust numerous times and they still go back for more.  I don't understand it, but that could be I never understood Facebook from the beginning.  Don't worry Google, I don't hate you for trying.

   The last news story for today is Ouya confirms they have been purchased by Razer, and the CEO of Ouya, Julie Uhrman. steps down.  Unfortunately, they couldn't catch a break after a successful crowd sourcing campaign and they have thrown in the towel.  The purchase of Ouya will help Razer make a solid push for more Android-style media devices like TV and consoles.  Let's home Razer has better luck.

   It's been a crazy news day today, so remember to stay safe goblins.

*Update*
I saw this article by ZDNet on some steps you can consider implementing to protect yourself from Stagefright until it's patched.  On my older phone, I disabled the auto-retrieve, I also found the option for Hangouts on my phone as well.  I was stuck for a bit looking on my tablet for the setting, but it was on my phone under SMS.

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About Jimmy R. Tassin

Jimmy Tassin is the IT Manager of Midwest Regional Bank and has been involved with the Technology field for over thirteen years. His two hobbies are overseeing the daily operations of OmniKraft, a Minecraft server community, and writing at Goblinbyte.com.