Sep 17, 2013

Android Updates and Security Worries

Android has been in the news with pictures of the Android robot made out of chocolate. Along with updates in the Android 4.3 or Jelly Bean OS, Android’s 4.4 “KitKat” will be presenting Google users with enhanced features later this year. But some security experts have recently voiced worries about the ways in which Google manages user passwords in new versions of Android.
Android Updates and Security Worries

What Jelly Bean Offered


Recently released, Android 4.3 promised accelerated 3D graphics, restricted profiles, increased blue-tooth intelligence, dialpad auto-complete and other features for Nexus users. It offered advanced surround sound technology with a system that can support virtual surround sound on Nexus devices. Progress was also reported in the operating system’s ability to support right-to-left languages such as Hindi, Hebrew and Arabic. Additional support was enhanced for Hindi, Afrikaans, Amharic, Swahili and Zulu.
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What KitKat Promises


Recent rumors suggest that the next upgrade of Google’s OS will become available on October 14th of this year. Sundar Pichai, Android chief, announced the name KitKat via Twitter earlier this month.
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Android 4.4 is being called KitKat because of a pact made with Nestle to match the integrity of the new OS with that of the popular chocolate bar as “sweet, smooth, beautiful and addictive.” A gigantic statue of the chocolate Android robot was erected along with previous characters, such as gingerbread and cupcake, on the lawn outside building 44 at Google headquarters. Several subsequent promotions such as limited Android robot-shaped chocolate wafer bars and the chance to win a Nexus 7 tablet with the purchase of a candy bar are in place.

Some of the suspected features include:


  • Revamped user interface
  • Firmware for older phones
  • Improved screen re-sizing
  • Newer APIs for animation
  • Additional theme colors besides the default blue
  • New notification widgets
It is anticipated that in a so-called “big bang,” Google will release the Nexus 5 smartphone and improved Chrome OS simultaneously with KitKat.
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Security Questions for New Versions of Android


As hype builds for the promised updates, Google’s Android mobile OS is also being called out by privacy experts who claim that newer versions of Android pose a serious security problem. Reportedly, the backup tools copy people’s Wi-Fi password histories and save them to Google’s servers. Obviously, this presents a security dilemma if Google is ever asked to divulge this stored information to a government authority.
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Gizmodo points out that the real issue is that on top of storing people’s passwords, Google is doing it in a way that makes it possible for them to read the passwords if they want to. This is why new Android devices can find all your old passwords and settings from their servers after you input your phone number, Gmail address and password. This poses a threat to network security for Android mobile technology.

As with any update, there are potential fears about bugs and security kinks. But as Android prepares to unveil more “candy” next month from its newest operating system, some users may be more interested in improving the password protection on their android devices.

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