apple-list June 2014

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6 discussions

FYI: iCloud, Google I/O, & GoogleDrive storage: 1 TB: was $120/year; new pricing: now $120/year

by Wayne Billing

Apple just had their yearly get together for developers called the "World Wide Developers Conference" (WWDC) which saw a raft of announcements including "iCloud Drive" and a change in their "cloud storage" pricing: for example, 20 GB for $12 per year and $50 per year will get you 200 GB in iCloud. (1 TB pricing has not yet been announced.) "iCloud Drive" will, of course, work with the new CONTINUITY features of 10.10 and iOS 8: https://www.apple.com/ca/ios/ios8/continuity/ Google's annual developer get together (called "I/O") is on this week and they, too, have announced new pricing for their cloud storage called Google Drive. 1 TeraByte of Google Drive storage used to cost $120 per year. Under the new pricing 1 TeraByte is priced at $120 per year............ oh. Well, while that is the truth that isn't the whole truth ..... if you are a company getting Google Drive for your employees (more than 5 employees, actually) http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html) your annual fee of $120 per employee gets you "Unlimited" Google Drive storage...... Oh.......... oh, ya, and it seems you need to enrol your company and employees in the "Google Apps for Business plan". The "Google Apps for Business plan" gets you all the online "Google Apps for Business": [cid:3465D8D4-F732-4131-BB4D-1A6BF5ABB8A0] [cid:C8069529-0C3A-4E1D-B3DB-737C108DF828] http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/products.html Wayne

9 years, 10 months

INTEREST: iOS 7's Activation Lock Feature Helping Reduce iPhone Theft in Three Major Cities

by Wayne Billing

...from: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/antitheft-technology-led-to-a-dip-… Antitheft Technology Led to a Dip in iPhone Thefts in Some Cities, Police Say By BRIAN X. CHEN<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/author/brian-x-chen/> JUNE 19, 2014 12:01 AM 4 Comments [Police officers in San Francisco and London say that after Apple last fall introduced a safety measure, called Activation Lock, iPhone theft fell significantly.]Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto AgencyPolice officers in San Francisco and London say that after Apple last fall introduced a safety measure, called Activation Lock, iPhone theft fell significantly. Updated with additional reporting on kill switch plans for Google and Microsoft. For several years, cellphone theft has been a growing epidemic worldwide. But the police in New York, San Francisco and London say they are finally starting to see a dip in thefts of one of the most popular smartphones. The reason? The attorney general of New York, Eric T. Schneiderman, and the district attorney of San Francisco, George Gascón, share the theory that phone thefts are dropping because of Apple’s addition of a so-called kill switch, a type of antitheft technology, in its iPhone in September. Police officers in San Francisco and London say that after Apple introduced its measure, called Activation Lock, last fall, iPhone theft fell significantly. Comparing data in the six months before and after Apple released the feature, the police said iPhone robberies in San Francisco dropped 38 percent, and those in London fell 24 percent. The police in New York said that robberies involving Apple products dropped 19 percent and those involving grand larcenies dropped 29 percent in the first five months of 2014, compared with the same time period from 2013. A kill switch is software that lets consumers lock down a phone after the device has been reported stolen; users can reactivate the phone only with the correct password or personal identification number. Police have said that this type of antitheft technology could discourage criminals from stealing smartphones. Microsoft on Thursday said<http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2014/06/19/micro…> that it, too, will introduce a kill switch in a future software update for its Windows Phone operating system. Google will also be introducing one in the next version of Android, said Matt Kallman, a Google spokesman. “The introduction of kill switches has clearly had an effect on the conduct of smartphone thieves,” Mr. Schneiderman said in an interview. “If these can be canceled like the equivalent of canceling a credit card, these are going to be the equivalent of stealing a paperweight.” Other factors could have contributed to the decrease in iPhone thefts. For one, the police and tech companies have tried harder over the last year to educate consumers on additional security measures to protect phones, like setting up passcodes, which can make it harder to gain access to devices so that they can be erased and resold. Over the last year, several lawmakers across the country have pushed for stronger antitheft features on smartphones. In May, Minnesota became the first state to require a kill switch on all smartphones. In California last month, senators passed a bill<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/with-a-change-of-heart-california-…>requiring phones sold in the state to include the antitheft technology. That bill still requires approval from the governor of California, Jerry Brown. San Francisco’s district attorney, Mr. Gascón, has been one of the most vocal supporters of a kill switch. He and Mr. Schneiderman collaborated to form the Secure Our Smartphones initiative to press businesses to create a technical way to dissuade thieves from stealing phones. Mr. Gascón said plenty of work remained. He said he hoped all manufacturers would include a kill switch turned on by default on all smartphones so consumers did not have to figure out how to use it. In the iPhone, for example, it is not turned on by default. “Many consumers might not be tech-savvy enough to do this,” Mr. Gascón said. He added that he still thought it was necessary for there to be laws requiring kill switches in phones, similar to how seat belts eventually became legally required inside cars.

9 years, 10 months

FYI: arrest made in "Locking and Ransoming Apple Devices"

by Wayne Billing

...from: http://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/09/australia-device-hackers-arrested/ Hackers Involved in Locking and Ransoming Apple Devices in Australia Arrested Monday June 9, 2014 10:37 am PDT by Juli Clover Two weeks ago, hackers hijacked several iOS and Mac devices in Australia, remotely locking them via iCloud and demanding a ransom from the owner to get the device unlocked. "Device locked by Oleg Pliss," read the hijacker's message, along with a demand for $50 to $100. Quite a few users were affected and while early speculation suggested iCloud may have been hacked, Apple confirmed<http://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/28/apple-denies-icloud-hack/> that iCloud was not compromised, and that hackers had instead gained access to Apple IDs and passwords, likely through other site breaches where they used similar credentials. [australian_ios_device_hacked] The two hackers behind the attacks have now been detained by Russian authorities, reportsThe Sydney Morning Herald<http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/hackers-who-held-apple…>. The hackers - aged 17 and 23 - were detained in the course of "operational activities" by the Russian Interior Ministry, Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs said. They are both residents of the Southern Administrative District of Moscow and one has already been tried before, it said. According to Russian site MKRU<http://www.mk.ru/incident/2014/06/09/kibermoshenniki-shantazhirovali-rossiy…> [Google Translate<http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mk…>), the two hackers were caught after appearing on camera withdrawing a victim's ransom money from an ATM. The site also confirms the hackers gained access to Apple IDs and passwords via phishing pages and social engineering techniques, then used that information to lock devices. Russian users were also affected, which led to the investigation. One method of obtaining login information involved a pre-owned account filled with movies and music that was sold to an unsuspecting victim. Once the person linked their own details with the account, it was vulnerable to being hijacked. During the attacks, users who had passcodes enabled on their devices were able to bypass the hack, but those who had not previously set a passcode were out of luck, requiring a full reinstall of iOS. Apple recommends using a passcode with iOS devices, as well as two-step authentication, which can help thwart attacks like this one.

9 years, 10 months

FYI: Android changes updates; might more easily expose private data

by Wayne Billing

...from: Android no longer reveals app permission changes in automatic updates Change could heighten security risks for users. by Dan Goodin<http://arstechnica.com/author/dan-goodin/> - June 11 2014, 10:11am CDT * ANDROID<http://arstechnica.com/discipline/android> * HARDENING<http://arstechnica.com/discipline/hardening> 61<http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/06/android-no-longer-reveals-app-permi…> [cid:B3933F94-CCCA-46F6-B996-4B40A40F7C32] Yoav F<https://secure.flickr.com/photos/yoav85/6231910409/> [New automatic Android app updates means users could miss a change in the permissions - such as permission to text message or permission to track - that app has on your device.] Previously, automatically updated apps displayed explicit details when a new version gained additional privileges. For example, an app that previously tracked only coarse GPS coordinates would warn users if an update would begin receiving fine coordinates. Similarly, a newly assigned ability to send SMS messages would also be disclosed. Under changes implemented through the latest Play store app, neither new privilege is displayed if a user has previously accepted any other permission in the same category as the new permission. In other words, by accepting one permission from a category, users agree that every other permission in that category can be added without notification in future updates. The change is an attempt by Google to streamline and simplify the process of installing updates. Rather than providing lengthy details many users likely don't understand, the new permission disclosure is much less verbose. Permissions are indicated only by a very general category such as Location, SMS, or Contacts/Calendar. Users who want to track precisely how a permission may have changed must click the category to see if specific new capabilities have been added. As a result, an app update that replaces coarse location with fine location simply shows the location category. End users must manually drill down to learn of the change. "I'd call it a step sideways," Marc Rogers, principal security researcher at Android antimalware provider Lookout, said of the change. "It definitely doesn't improve anything and it introduces some new risks, but I do think it addresses a couple of other issues." As an example, he said, suppose an updated app acquires the right to view photos. "I'm not sure users are well equipped to understand the full risk that each category could represent. I doubt as a user I would understand that the implication of that is I'm also giving someone permission to format my SD card. So there is a risk that users who have auto update on will not see this new permission of 'format the SD card' come in and somebody could do something malicious." The changes have been the topic of sometimes vigorous debate on reddit threads here<http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/27n7yr/what_latest_changes_to_play…>, here<http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/27gsqn/how_to_find_the_hidden_new_…>, andhere<http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/27g33v/security_warning_android_pl…>. Users who object to the changes should consider disabling automatic updates<https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/6014972#update>. That can be done by opening the Google Play app and switching to the settings view. Auto updating can be set for all apps or just some of them. Google has more details about the permission changes here<https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/6014972?hl=en>.

9 years, 10 months

INTEREST: iOS8: feature: randomizes MAC address while scanning

by Wayne Billing

...from: http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/09/ios-8-randomizes-mac-address-while-scanning-w… iOS 8 randomizes MAC address while scanning WiFi, blocks marketers tracking you<http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/09/ios-8-randomizes-mac-address-while-scanning-w…> [WiFi-Mac-Address-iOS-8] One iOS 8 feature Apple hasn’t talked about much is its ability to randomize the device’s MAC address<http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/27n6cy/ios_8_randomises_the_mac_addr…> while scanning for WiFi networks. In iOS 8, Wi-Fi scanning behavior has changed to use random,locally administered MAC addresses… The MAC address used for Wi-Fi scans may not always be the devices real (universal) address… Once the iOS device is done scanning it will give the real MAC ID. This appears to be a security and privacy precaution as marketing and analytics companies routinely use this unique identifier to collect data about nearby devices scanning for WiFi networks. The New York Times published<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/business/attention-shopper-stores-are-tra…> a story last year about a similar experiment at Nordstrom and several marketing companies selling data to retailers and more use the same method of picking up the MAC address from devices scanning for WiFi networks. One of those companies, Euclid Analytics<http://euclidanalytics.com/privacy/statement/?_ga=1.96730975.1797034683.139…>, explains how it currently uses the MAC address of iPhones to help clients. While it notes “the MAC address does not disclose the device owner’s real-world identity nor any other personal data,” it also uses the data it collects to help clients “improve store layouts, determine timing for promotions and sales, measure the effects of advertising, and set staffing levels and store hours.” These marketing companies do the same for Samsung and Android devices, which also do not currently automatically randomize the MAC address, but it looks like Apple might put an end to that with iOS 8.

9 years, 10 months

FYI: WWDC Keynote and iOS HEALTH app

by Wayne Billing

Apple's annual World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) was held this week and, while the KEYNOTE address and sessions have been available only to developers in the past, this year the Keynote was webcast for anyone to watch: http://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2014/ It's quite long (about 2 hours) so here's a quick synopsis of what will be introduced for OS X and iOS this fall: http://www.wired.com/2014/06/tldr-all-the-news-you-need-from-wwdc/ http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/02/apple-wwdc-2014-liveblog/ One of the announcements that might have a big impact on how people monitor their health was Apple's HealthKit (for developers) and the HEALTH app for users: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg_SYnw3-vA http://www.cnet.com/products/apple-health/

9 years, 10 months

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apple-list June 2014