SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
berrance writes "ITworld reports that the source code for the Android mobile banking Trojan app "iBanking" has surfaced via an underground forum. The software has been masquerading as a security app appearing on banking sites, via HTML injection attacks. In addition to serving as a Trojan, this app is also a bot net client, which 'connects to a command-and-control server that allows attackers to issue commands to each infected device.'"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Confess your sins to the Lord and you will be forgiven;
confess them to man and you will be laughed at.
-- Josh Billings
(Score: 5, Insightful) by FuckBeta on Sunday February 23 2014, @12:39PM
What about using only software which respects your freedom? Not everyone will agree with RMS, but he has proven uncommonly prescient in some of his writings about the consequence of accepting nonfree software.
Internet banking is typically accessed over HTTP and TLS. Therefore users can use existing free and open source software to perform this task.
Trying to "secure" non free software is putting lipstick on a pig. Users are asked to rely on unauditable and therefore untrustable code to mitigate potential exploits in other untrustable, unauditable code.
Developments in computing this last generation have been nothing short of revolutionary. If people wish the benefits then they must take personal responsibility for understanding as much as they are able to about computers and software, and then make rational choices accordingly. Choosing software which respects your freedom is one such choice. Anything less is papering over cracks and ultimately self defeating. It is challenging, and not suited to everyone, however the benefit of an advanced society is that we each specialise in the work we like the best. Nobody has to write a kernel or browser from scratch, there are free packages available. We can each stand on the shoulders of giants. All that is required is a willingness to learn and take personal responsibility for who we choose to trust.
For those who prefer slick marketing and the illusion of security to actual knowledge, they will get what they ultimately deserve. I predict the creation of a technically illiterate underclass (and perhaps a politically illiterate underclass also) if this disturbing social trend is not reversed.
The younger generation have a lot to answer for. They inherited the infrastructure built by those older and wiser, and have turned it into an entertainment / vanity platform. Interestingly one of the WhatsApp founders is from a former Soviet state and recently spoke to the media about how important privacy is to him - across the page, an article about poorly implemented crypto in WhatsApp!
Quit Slashdot...because Fuck Beta!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Sunday February 23 2014, @03:21PM
Arguing freedom over controlled but shiny does not seem to work well these days. People these days have no vision beyond short term gratification.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by digitalaudiorock on Sunday February 23 2014, @05:28PM
For me the most astonishing aspect of all of this is the bullshit "there's an app for everything" mentality...most of the time involving stuff that could be done in a fucking browser. Can you imagine if people were told they had to install an application on their computer for every site they used? Yet in the age of smart phones that's precisely what everyone seems to be doing...crazed.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by linsane on Sunday February 23 2014, @05:44PM
Yet just think of the moment that, a couple of years ago, most likely in an Apple inc. office somewhere, there must have been a conversation where someone worked out that that was the way to monetize the interweb, 99c at a time.
Absolute genius even if you don't approve of the end result.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by lhsi on Sunday February 23 2014, @06:50PM
Although speaking of bookmarks, I wish I could manage bookmarks on Android Chrome as easily as I can manage apps