Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

There have been quite a few security issues in the news this past week.  Let’s take a look at some of the top stories:

Poisoned iPhone MMS Searches

Hackers wasted no time in exploiting the release of the much anticipated MMS functionality for the iPhone.  AT&T finally made it available on Friday (September 25, 2009), and experts say that now that 6 out of the top 10 search results for search phrases involving the keywords iPhone and MMS are malicious, directing to sites that try to push fake anti-virus scareware.  This is a tactic that hackers use to exploit holidays, hot topics and news headlines.  Just a week or two ago it was used to poison searches about actor Patrick Swayze, who died of cancer on September 14th.  To protect yourself, stick to reputable, well known sites for your information.
Read [PCWorld]

Microsoft releases free anti-virus software

Today, Microsoft released its new (and free!) anti-virus software package, called Microsoft Security Essentials.  It replaces Live OneCare and offers virus, spyware and rootkit protection without the bloat of Norton or McAfee.  It’s fast and simple with a slick, clean interface and is poised to give AVG some real competition.  With no resource hogging extras like firewalls and browser plug ins, its footprint is small and it doesn’t slow down boot up or shut down times.
You can download it here.
Read [CNet]

iPhone app reveals potential privacy issue

iPhone users who have installed the version of the free app called mogoRoad received a rather rude surprise: spammy phone calls from the developer urging them to upgrade to the paid version.  When confronted the company claimed Apple had given them the users phone numbers but Apple doesn’t ever release such info, so a French site did some digging and discovered something startling: it’s not only possible, but very easy for an app to access the phone number of the iPhone it is installed on.  This might be a feature designed to enhance the functionality of some apps, but it does raise privacy concerns.  Apple hasn’t had any comment on the discovery but hopefully they will be coming down hard on the developers of mogoRoad and any others who abuse this “feature.”
Read [PCWorld]

Bank forces Google to shut down GMail account that did nothing wrong

A blunder by an employee of Rocky Mountain Bank resulted in a GMail user having their account shut down, even though they did no wrong.  The employee somehow sent an email containing over 1,000 customer names, addresses, SSN numbers and loan information to a random GMail address, apparently due to a typo.  Once the mistake was realized the bank sent another email to the address asking that the info be destroyed and that the user contact the bank.  When they got no reply they contacted Google and asked for the user’s information. 

Google said they could honor the request without a court order so the bank went to court and forced Google to shut down the account.  The bank and Google have since come up with a way to resolve the issue but until the court approves their motion to dismiss the case, the GMail user (who has not been identified) remains locked out of their account.  The bank had no comment.  One hopes they will at least issue an apology to him/her for punishing them for their employee’s mistake!
Read [ComputerWorld]

Assassination poll yanked from Facebook

Finally, in yet another example of why Facebook simply can’t keep refusing to implement better security where its 3rd party apps are concerned, it was forced to yank yet another app after the Secret Service informed them of a poll that asked “Should Obama be killed?”  Over 700 people took the poll before it was yanked, but the results are unknown.  The Secret Service is currently trying to find the person who created the poll.
Read [CNet]