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Android

Android Nougat Won't Boot If Your Phone's Software Is Corrupt Or Has Malware (androidauthority.com) 163

Posted by msmash from the prevention-better-than-doing-nothing dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report on Android Authority: In a bid to increase the security of the Android operating system, Google has introduced a new check for malware as part of the boot process in all Android devices. Until Marshmallow, Android devices ran the check as part of the boot process and in Marshmallow, the phone would warn you that it was compromised but would continue to let the phone boot up. In Nougat however, Google is taking this security check to the next level. On the Android Developer's blog, the company explains that Android Nougat strictly enforces that boot check, giving you far more than a warning. The good news is that if your phone is infected with types of malware, it will refuse to boot or will boot in a limited capacity mode (presumably akin to safe mode). The bad news however, is that some non-malicious corruption of data could also mean that your phone will refuse to boot up. Considering that corrupted data may not always be malicious -- even a single-byte error could cause your phone to refuse to boot up -- Android Nougat brings additional code to guard against corruption.

Comment Re:Remember, not illegal! (Score 2) 165

by astrokid (#35140062) Attached to: Verizon iPhone Is Now Jailbreakable

I always wonder who these folks are that want to jailbreak for purposes other than unlocking.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I would jb for two major reasons.

  • 1. BiteSMS - Ability to send/receive SMS within another application. Not having iOS exit my current application in order to just read an incoming messages makes me wonder why this isn't a part of the core OS yet.
  • 2. 3G Unrestrictor - It is nice to be able to download or use various applications without having to be near a WiFi spot.
Privacy

Crowdsourcing Big Brother In Lancaster, PA 440

Posted by timothy from the nerd-campers-running-amok-at-the-market dept.
sehlat writes "From the Los Angeles Times comes word that in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 165 public surveillance cameras are being set up to be monitored by a 'non profit coalition' of volunteers. The usual suspects, including 'the innocent have nothing to fear' are being trotted out to justify this, and the following quote at the end of the article deserves mention: 'But Jack Bauer, owner of the city's largest beer and soft drink distributor, calls the network "a great thing." His store hasn't been robbed, he said, since four cameras went up nearby. "There's nothing wrong with instilling fear," he said.'"
Moon

NASA To Trigger Massive Explosion On the Moon In Search of Ice 376

Posted by timothy from the smashing-darling-smashing dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "NASA is preparing to launch the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, which will fly a Centaur rocket booster into the moon, triggering a six-mile-high explosion that scientists hope will confirm whether water is frozen in the perpetual darkness of craters near the moon's south pole. If the spacecraft launches on schedule at 12:51 p.m. Wednesday, it will hit the moon in the early morning hours of October 8 after an 86-day Lunar Gravity-Assist, Lunar Return Orbit that will allow the spacecraft time to complete its two-month commissioning phase and conduct nearly a month of science data collection of polar crater measurements before colliding with the moon just 10 minutes behind the Centaur." (Continues, below.)

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