Showing posts with label Privacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Privacy. Show all posts

Friday, 24 June 2016

This Week I Learned - Week #168

This Week I Learned -

Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Algorithm Cheat Sheet helps you choose the right algorithm for a predictive analytics model.

* Microsoft Data Science Virtual Machine (DSVM) is an operating system image available in the Azure Marketplace with a host of popular data science tools pre-installed and pre-configured.

Azure SQL Data Warehouse can connect to Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning libraries and Azure Data Lake.

Mark Zuckerberg covers his laptop camera. The taped-over camera and microphone jack are usually a signal that someone is concerned, perhaps only vaguely, about hackers’ gaining access to his or her devices by using remote-access trojans — a process called “ratting.” (Remote access is not limited to ratters: According to a cache of National Security Agency documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, at least two government-designed programs were devised to take over computer cameras and microphones.) - NY Times

* Based on the data gathered from Trend Micro Mobile App Reputation Service, malicious apps related to Godless malware  threat can be found in prominent app stores, including Google PlayThe incident provides further evidence that users can't strictly trust official app stores to stay protected.

* Interesting facts from LinkedIn's Top Attractors list
- Half of CapGemini’s global workforce is based in India.

- Wipro (Western India Palm Refined Oils Limited) is one of India’s largest public companies and the seventh largest IT company in the world. Wipro has 170,000 employees on six continents and generates half of its revenues in the Americas.

- OYO’s founder and CEO, Ritesh Agarwal is just 22 years old and is the first resident Indian to win the Thiel Fellowship, a $100,000 grant from Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel.

- Cognizant was ranked #230 in the Fortune 500 list this year, up from #288 in 2015.

- Since 2012, Amazon has offered a program called "Career Choice," where the company pays 95% of tuition for its fulfillment and customer service center employees to take courses in non-work related fields, such as airplane mechanics, nursing, and medical lab technologies.

- Salesforce consulted monks when constructing areas for mindfulness in its offices. (Conservative Hindus swear by vasthu)

* The CEO of Goldman Sachs, a brand that for most of the world is the archetype of “Wall Street bank,” now tells anyone who asks that his company is actually a tech firm (and the fact that a quarter of its workforce is now engineers backs that up

* Dohaz.com does English translations of Hindi lyrics of mostly Bollywood songs


Venezuela has shown that even in a country with the largest oil reserves in the world, it is possible for people to riot because there is not enough food. Economists say years of economic mismanagement — worsened by low prices for oil, the nation’s main source of revenue — have shattered the food supply.

* Natural gas, the kind used to heat homes and fuel gas stoves, is actually odorless. A chemical, called mercaptan, is added to the gas to give it a scent... of rotten eggs. This is done so that if a gas leak occurs, (which could be dangerous) humans can detect even the slightest whiff and report it ASAP

*  Michael Phelps, aged 30,  is the most successful Olympian in history with 18 golds, two silvers and two bronzes in his four trips so far. In 2014, he went into rehab after his second D.U.I. arrest in September 2014 (his first occurred when he was 19) "having no idea what to do with the rest of his life".

* In the book Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl argues that we have an incredible power to shape our attitudes and responses to the challenges life presents us and that we inevitably grow thanks to these challenges. We inevitably choose to be who we are...if we choose wisely, we can triumph even in tragedy. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual

* "Stop saying learning to code is easy..."easy" sets folks up for failure and a lifetime of self-doubt" - Scott Hanselman 

Thursday, 16 June 2016

Browsers give away device name through user agent - Et tu Browser!

My mobile browser has been letting the websites I visit know what handset I use and I wouldn't have known this until I saw this targeted ad - an ad for case for Lumia 530

I knew about browser user-agent strings, but today I learnt that browsers give away device model name as well, through the user agent they expose -
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows Phone 8.1; ARM; Trident/7.0; Touch; rv:11.0; IEMobile/11.0; NOKIA; Lumia 530 Dual SIM) like Gecko

Thursday, 12 May 2016

Beware of Mobile Apps which misuse access requirements

An excellent article by Shadma Shaikh in The Economic Times, highlights the dangers of Mobile Apps which misuse access requirements. Excerpts -

As India becomes a mobile app-economy, it is important for users to understand if apps indeed require access to so much of their data and device tools. 

Even if .. not paranoid about online security, you ought to be more careful about something else--mobile applications.Apps that read your contact list and your messages--including the ones about your bank transactions and one-time passwords, and access your pictures, screenshots and messenger images.

Permissions by themselves are harmless and even useful to provide users a good mobile experience. But since the list of permissions required is long and doesn't explain its effect, an immediate reaction is to treat it the way you would a `Terms and conditions' agreement--accept without reading the list and move to the next step. Skipping over these permissions could mean handing over your data to an oblivious app developer or unscrupulous data miners. 

Many apps ask for a host of permissions to access data and functions they don't require. The key lies in identifying the nature of the app and questioning what seem to be unnecessary requests.

The latest version of Google's Android operating system and Apple's iOS allow users greater flexibility in deciding what permissions to give to apps.

Developers, in the process of making apps more usable, end up asking for access to too many things the apps don't require, says Bryce Boland, chief technology officer, Asia-Pacific, at cyber security firm FireEye. Some well-known brands, too, have poorly coded apps that end up compromising on security, he said.

Yuval Ben Itzhak, former chief technology officer at security software company AVG Technologies, points out that if data leaving a device via an app is unencrypted--not converted into code to prevent unauthorized access--hackers can `look inside' it and get access to passwords, credit card numbers and other personal details.This is most likely to happen on public WiFi hotspots like those at airports, malls or coffee shops.

Apps often have permission to create and save files in various locations on your devices, some of which are retained even after the apps are uninstalled. A game app that you uninstalled could have retained images in your phone gallery. Another app that also has access to your gallery can now access those images.

A lot of this unnecessary access requirement also has to do with how apps are built and monetized. To make money out of apps, companies often integrate third-party libraries that allow these external entities to push ads and other content on their apps.Attackers can leverage poorly written code or third-party libraries to gain access to a user's phone or data

The Indian smartphone market that is dominated by second-hand and low-budget smartphones is more susceptible to mobile security attacks

As consumers, if an app is free, we need to figure how its developers make money. Is it by pushing ads or by providing a premium service upgrade in exchange of money?

Consumers who download apps without reading the permissions sought are also responsible for the increase in the number of `incidents' directed through mobile apps.

If people ditch apps that ask for a lot of permissions in favour of those that don't, app developers will be pushed to design apps in a way that they don't ask for unrequired permissions