Security News Roundup 14/04/14

Categorised in: Latest News

April 14, 2014 3:56 pm

Android devices and tablets are reportedly vulnerable to Heartbleed 

Last week, Google announced that Android devices are immune from Heartbleed save for a limited exception. As it turns out, that may not be true. Researchers now say that the millions of devices that use a 2012 version of Google’s mobile operating system could be at risk.

Of the 900 million Android devices purchased worldwide, Bloomberg reports that 34 percent run the outdated software.  ‘One of the major issues with Android is the update cycle is really long,’ Michael Shaulov, CEO of mobile security company Lacoon Security Ltd. told Bloomberg. ‘The device manufacturers and the carriers need to do something with the patch, and that’s usually a really long process.’

A spokesman for Google said: ‘It’s good practice to use strong passwords that are unique to each of your accounts, but we don’t think our users need to change their Google Account passwords because of this bug.’

American Airlines freaks out 14 year old for tweeting a terrorist threat

On Sunday morning a twitter account allegedly belonging to a 14 year old girl tweeted a message to American Airlines:  “Hello my name’s Ibrahim and I’m from Afghanistan. I’m part of Al Qaida and on June 1st I’m gonna do something really big bye.”

“Sarah, we take these threats very seriously. Your IP address and details will be forwarded to security and the FBI.” The airline responded.

The girl then responded with a series of frantic tweets:  “I’m so sorry I’m scared now.” she wrote, quickly adding, “I was joking and it was my friend not me, take her IP address not mine.”