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Four 'virus' stories July 2011 - August 2015
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Motorola confirms StageFright bug fix coming to 11 smartphone lines including new Moto X and Moto G

Avatar for Cam Bunton Aug 10 2015 - 3:15 am PT
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Motorola has joined several other Android OEMs in confirming that it will be rolling out a StageFright software fix for many of its popular smartphone lines. As you’d expect, this includes the newly announced Moto X and Moto G handsets as well as a number of older devices.

The new devices will be patched from launch, while others may be subject to the usual carrier approval and testing. Carrier partners will receive the software and start testing on August 10th. In all, there are 200 variants of software to be patched, tested and released. So it could take time for you to get your fix.

The list of devices includes:

  • Moto X Style (patched from launch)
  • Moto X Play (patched from launch)
  • Moto X (1st Gen, 2nd Gen)
  • Moto X Pro
  • Moto Maxx/Turbo
  • Moto G (1st Gen, 2nd Gen, 3rd Gen)
  • Moto G with 4G LTE (1st Gen, 2nd Gen)
  • Moto E  (1st Gen, 2nd Gen)
  • Moto E  with 4G LTE (2nd Gen)
  • DROID Turbo
  • DROID Ultra/Mini/Maxx

As I’m sure you’re now aware, it recently came to light that Android had a serious, gaping hole left in its coding. Dubbed ‘Android’s worst vulnerability in Mobile OS history‘ StageFright would essentially allow anyone with the ability and motive to include malware in any video MMS message. It could potentially affect your phone before you even open or see the message. To be safe, be sure to read our guide on how you can protect yourself against it until your software fix arrives.

How to check & protect against the “worst Android vulnerability” ever, Stagefright

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Aug 7 2015 - 4:52 am PT
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When mobile security researchers recently discovered what they described as the “worst Android vulnerability in the mobile OS history,” there appeared little you could do about it beyond waiting for your carrier or manufacturer to push Google’s fix. The exploit could auto-run as soon as you received an MMS designed to trigger it, whether or not you opened the message.

The same researchers have now created an app that allows you to check whether or not your devices has been patched against Stagefright, together with a step you can take to prevent the exploit from running automatically … 
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Google now detects malware in Search

Avatar for Jake Smith Jul 19 2011 - 7:55 pm PT
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If found in their data center’s servers, Google will now notify you if you have malware running on your computer when making a Google Search. Google announced the new feature today, and hopes to use their vast wealth of information to make this effective. Google explains:

Recently, we found some unusual search traffic while performing routine maintenance on one of our data centers. After collaborating with security engineers at several companies that were sending this modified traffic, we determined that the computers exhibiting this behavior were infected with a particular strain of malicious software, or “malware

Obliviously this won’t pick up every single piece of malware out there, but it’s a nice little addition to an already great search platform.