I decided to start this week's article by exposing a secret typically only held by IT Experts and specialists. I'll likely lose my secret decoder ring over this but the big secret is, read the pop-ups. As any IT person knows when they are called over to their parent's, friend's or work computer, the first thing to do is read the pop-up messages.
As an example, I'll use my parent's problem with a video chat session. Running the session displayed a message from the anti-virus software in the bottom right area of the screen. Accessing the message, it read "do you want BitDefender to allow your chat app to access to the video camera". I clicked on "yes", restarted the video chat app and lo and behold the video was shared with the other party. Many problems like this can be solved by reading the pop-ups, which for some reason many users don't.
The latest versions of Android provide similar examples. A friend did not click on "allow" for the camera for Line the messenger app, so couldn't take and share pictures. For version 6 up you go to Settings > Apps > Select the App > Permissions then enable or disable any permissions listed. If you are interested in a specific permission for all Apps like Location then go to Settings > Apps > tap the gear icon (Configure) > App Permissions > then e.g. Location. This will display all the Apps with Location sharing permissions activated (or not). You can change the setting for any App.
You may have heard that KRACK is a problem, not quite as bad as the drug but potentially an issue if you use Wi-Fi on your devices, like the majority of us do. A flaw has been found in the WPA2 security protocol. The Key Reinstallation Attacks, or KRACK, can allow attackers to inject and manipulate data as well as listen in on communications. The attacker needs to be within Wi-Fi range of the target. This includes both WPA2 Personal and Enterprise and does not depend on your encryption cyphers. Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, OpenBSD, MediaTek, Linksys, and others are all affected by some variant of the attacks so if think you are safe because you are say an iPhone user, you aren't.
This is a deep design flaw in the Wi-Fi standard itself, so changing your passwords will not help. The only solution is to apply a patch or update as soon as one is released by your equipment provider. If you want to know how the attack happens, you can find it described in detail on the web. It's recommended that you continue to use WPA2. Any solution will also require routers to be updated so contact your modem/router supplier. People tend to forget about their Wi-Fi router and associated updates. When was the last time you updated it? Not so much a problem in the private home but in apartment blocks this could be a real issue.
On the general subject of privacy, in the US at least, some mobile phone companies are selling their customers' private data. This includes their full name, phone number, contract details, home zip code and current location. This is ostensibly being done "in the name of security". It was discovered by security researcher Philip Neustrom by looking at mobile authentication companies Danal and Payfone. Both claimed to have user's permission which was a surprise to many users. The sites are now down and questions are being asked as to why AT&T's Mobile Identity API is providing such detailed info. I suspect this will open a new can of worms, so there will be more to come on this story.
Elon Musk has the best business model. He mostly uses government money and grants, eg US and Australia, to run his corporation. If things don't work then it's off to another grant and some people lose their jobs, like those over at Tesla did recently because people were not buying as many battery driven cars as expected. You can start your own business like this, just come up with an idea that attracts the attention of a government paymaster, pitch it like mad and get some cash. The blame is generally put back on the government for giving the grant in the first place.
Here is a little trick for iPhone users. You can invert the colours on the screen. This can be useful for those sensitive to light, have a form of colour blindness, are in the dark, or just for fun. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations. Select Invert Colours and Smart Invert, or you can try Classic Invert as well. If this is something you want to be able to turn on and off easily go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut and select the option for the triple click on the Home button.
James Hein is an IT professional of over 30 years standing. You can contact him at jclhein@gmail.com.
