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Millions of Android Devices Vulnerable To New Stagefright Exploit
An anonymous reader writes: Security researchers have found yet another flaw in Android's Stagefright. The researchers were able to remotely hack an Android phone by exploiting the bugs. According to their estimation, the flaw exposes devices running Android software version between 5.0-5.1, or 36% of 1.4 billion, to security attacks. "I would be surprised if multiple professional hacking groups do not have working Stagefright exploits by now. Many devices out there are still vulnerable, so Zimperium has not published the second exploit in order to protect the ecosystem," Zuk Avraham, chairman of Zimperium, the firm which found the first Stagefright exploit told Wired.
Anyone who in 2016 doesn't understand how the exchange of a "free' phone OS for personal data works needs to grab a refresher from the many excellent sources of economic theory available.
There's nothing free about Android that is shipped on phones. Vendors deal with Google and in return ship *additional apps* in their OS. The customers then in turn pay very good money for the use of the phone.
All of that is not really an issue anyway since absolutely nothing in Android leaks privacy. You can run it without phoning home, without a Google account, and you can run it even when you have zero access to Google or any Google services (see the millions of Android devices in China).
Mind you I'm interested in your economic theory on open source software, which is what Android actually is.
kick-ass navigation, YouTube, handy email and calendar integration with work, and more.
None of which are part of Android and none of which have anything to do with Android's security implementation.