4 ms·

Google as Benevolent Dictator Yanks Smartphone Apps With Kill Switch

32 points by J3L2404 15y ago

viraptor 15y ago
Not related to the article itself, but: > and is considering reinstalling her operating software, the nuclear option of virus cleanups. I'm a bit surprised this still gets framed as the last thing you'd do. If you get one virus, that means you could have any number of them using the same mechanism. You've been compromised and can't really be sure what else is affected. Why is it the final option, rather than the default action to rollback to known state (and I mean rolling back everything, not reinstalling just your OS on a disk with executables which are already affected...)
- Zirro 15y ago
  I'd say the nuclear/final option would be getting a brand new system. Does malware which clings to the BIOS or specific hardware still exist today?
  - etherealG 15y ago
    I think the point is that malware has the ability to put itself into your system in any way once it has access. that might include ways in which your removal software won't be aware of. the only "safe" option is to revert to a state previous to the malware being present. if no state like that is saved, then a reinstall from scratch.
    - Zirro 15y ago
      That's true, but what prevents the states from earlier times from having been compromised as well? (There appears to have been some confusion on my part here. When reinstalling the operating system was mentioned, I thought only of doing it from scratch. If there is a way to reinstall the system but keeping your files, it should clearly not be used in this case.)
      - viraptor 15y ago
        Encrypted backups kept off the main machine help with that. Even if they're on the machine, keeping them encrypted and with hash stored somewhere, you can tell which ones were tampered with (not that you can change an encrypted image without corrupting it of course).
- sskates 15y ago
  Most users don't have an automated process that regularly performs full backups of their hard drive, so reinstalling the OS is painful. Hopefully software will solve this problem permanently for us in the near future. Until then it will be too much of a bother for most users to set up an automated full backup process. Even as a software developer who's familiar with technology, I don't do full hard disk backups for my personal machines. It's just too much of a pain, and I've decided to take it as an acceptable risk.
  - Zirro 15y ago
    I've been using http://www.backblaze.com http://www.backblaze.com for a while now and it's worked great so far. It's not a full hard disk backup, but essentially everything non-system.
  - mike-cardwell 15y ago
    It's not as much of a pain as you think. I just drop a couple of lines in a cron job and that gives me full disk, incremental, encrypted backups: https://grepular.com/Secure_Free_Incremental_and_Instant_Backups_for_Linux https://grepular.com/Secure_Free_Incremental_and_Instant_Bac...
    - sskates 15y ago
      This might be a shocker, but my personal machines run Windows. Anyone familiar with a simple automated full disk backup tool for Windows?
    - cryptoz 15y ago
      Oh come on. You're clearly not "most users" if you can just set up cron jobs. It's important for us to remember who most users are and that they are not us.
      - mike-cardwell 15y ago
        Obviously. I was addressing his second paragraph; offering personal advice to him and anyone else here who might be interested.
Father 15y ago
Pleonasm and power terms make it sound like there's something terrible happening. The option is there to purge malicious content; which appears useful to me. If "they" would purge random items/apps the hue and cry of the masses would create damage to the brand and it's continuity; which in turn is a self regulating property that such events should not occur for the sake of the companies involved.
- ry0ohki 15y ago
  I think the main problem with this type of technology is it's very easy to imagine the RIAA/AT&T/US Gov/whoever suing or pressuring Google to remove (Insert Non Malware App Name Here) for whatever reason.
  - gcp 15y ago
    One word: Grooveshark.
    - terinjokes 15y ago
      But they didn't kill the app from users phones, they removed it from the marketplace.
  - Karunamon 15y ago
    Slippery slope is a logical fallacy. I'll save my future outrage for if/when they abuse the function. As it stands, they've been nothing but responsible and show every intention of remaining that way. I'm pretty sure they understand that if they abuse the kill switch, even once, the resulting shitstorm will be of sopa-esque proportions.

32 points by J3L2404 15y ago

Not related to the article itself, but: > and is considering reinstalling her operating software, the nuclear option of virus cleanups. I'm a bit surprised this still gets framed as the last thing you'd do. If you get one virus, that means you could have any number of them using the same mechanism. You've been compromised and can't really be sure what else is affected. Why is it the final option, rather than the default action to rollback to known state (and I mean rolling back everything, not reinstalling just your OS on a disk with executables which are already affected...)

Zirro 15y ago
I'd say the nuclear/final option would be getting a brand new system. Does malware which clings to the BIOS or specific hardware still exist today?
- etherealG 15y ago
  I think the point is that malware has the ability to put itself into your system in any way once it has access. that might include ways in which your removal software won't be aware of. the only "safe" option is to revert to a state previous to the malware being present. if no state like that is saved, then a reinstall from scratch.
  - Zirro 15y ago
    That's true, but what prevents the states from earlier times from having been compromised as well? (There appears to have been some confusion on my part here. When reinstalling the operating system was mentioned, I thought only of doing it from scratch. If there is a way to reinstall the system but keeping your files, it should clearly not be used in this case.)
    - viraptor 15y ago
      Encrypted backups kept off the main machine help with that. Even if they're on the machine, keeping them encrypted and with hash stored somewhere, you can tell which ones were tampered with (not that you can change an encrypted image without corrupting it of course).
sskates 15y ago
Most users don't have an automated process that regularly performs full backups of their hard drive, so reinstalling the OS is painful. Hopefully software will solve this problem permanently for us in the near future. Until then it will be too much of a bother for most users to set up an automated full backup process. Even as a software developer who's familiar with technology, I don't do full hard disk backups for my personal machines. It's just too much of a pain, and I've decided to take it as an acceptable risk.
- Zirro 15y ago
  I've been using http://www.backblaze.com http://www.backblaze.com for a while now and it's worked great so far. It's not a full hard disk backup, but essentially everything non-system.
- mike-cardwell 15y ago
  It's not as much of a pain as you think. I just drop a couple of lines in a cron job and that gives me full disk, incremental, encrypted backups: https://grepular.com/Secure_Free_Incremental_and_Instant_Backups_for_Linux https://grepular.com/Secure_Free_Incremental_and_Instant_Bac...
  - sskates 15y ago
    This might be a shocker, but my personal machines run Windows. Anyone familiar with a simple automated full disk backup tool for Windows?
  - cryptoz 15y ago
    Oh come on. You're clearly not "most users" if you can just set up cron jobs. It's important for us to remember who most users are and that they are not us.
    - mike-cardwell 15y ago
      Obviously. I was addressing his second paragraph; offering personal advice to him and anyone else here who might be interested.

Father 15y ago

Pleonasm and power terms make it sound like there's something terrible happening. The option is there to purge malicious content; which appears useful to me. If "they" would purge random items/apps the hue and cry of the masses would create damage to the brand and it's continuity; which in turn is a self regulating property that such events should not occur for the sake of the companies involved.

ry0ohki 15y ago
I think the main problem with this type of technology is it's very easy to imagine the RIAA/AT&T/US Gov/whoever suing or pressuring Google to remove (Insert Non Malware App Name Here) for whatever reason.
- gcp 15y ago
  One word: Grooveshark.
  - terinjokes 15y ago
    But they didn't kill the app from users phones, they removed it from the marketplace.
- Karunamon 15y ago
  Slippery slope is a logical fallacy. I'll save my future outrage for if/when they abuse the function. As it stands, they've been nothing but responsible and show every intention of remaining that way. I'm pretty sure they understand that if they abuse the kill switch, even once, the resulting shitstorm will be of sopa-esque proportions.