news report4

Mikayla Chiarello
10/28/2008
Google's New Android Phone Vulnerable To Attack
By Stefanie Hoffman,
http://www.crn.com/security/211600884

This article was about the new cell phone from T-Mobile and Google called the G1 SmartPhone. It was released in last week, October 22, and uses the android operating system. It was supposed to be the next big thing, without flaws and all up to date technological features. But a glitch was found in the android operating system which would allow hackers to access these users information if they use certain websites that may pose as other existing websites. They could access any information that the phone had access to including social security number and any other personal data. Charlie Miller, the principal analyst at Independent Security Evaluators said, "if you end up on a bad guys' site, he can basically take over the phone and run code, and access anything your browser has access to and do anything your browser could do,". Miller was the one outside of Google who first observed the flaw. He contacted Google immediately and they responded by simply stating that they were still trying to fix it and asked him to stay away from the public with his information. He said he felt that was the wrong thing to do and felt the public had every right to know the glitches in a product they might purchase. Google still proclaims that this minor security problem should not impact its sales and that a solution to the problem will be found in no time. The reason I chose this news report is because I had done the article on the introduction of the G1 phone in my last news report and it was interesting to see how things have progressed.