Use Whatsapp on Android? Your chats are not so secure

 If you use WhatsApp on an Android phone, you should be careful about what you talk about or share on the instant messaging app. Using a few scripts and a rogue app, anyone can peer into your chat logs and see what you talk about with your friends.

A Dutch security consultant has found that WhatsApp chat logs saved on the SD card of an Android phone can be read by other apps because of the way Android allows sharing of data between apps.

"The WhatsApp database is saved on the SD card which can be read by any Android application if the user allows it to access the SD card. And since majority of the people allows everything on their Android device, this is not much of a problem," Bas Bosschert wrote on his blog.

"What do we need to steal someone's WhatsApp database? First we need a place to store the database," Bosschert explained. "Next thing we need is an Android application which uploads the WhatsApp database to the website."

When an Android application is installed, whether from the Play store or through an APK file, which is an installer file for Android phones and can be downloaded from various sources, the app requests for permissions to use network and SD card etc.

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To explain his hack, Bosschert set up a web server and then created an Android application that required several special permissions on a user's phone. But because Android OS allows applications to access various parts of the phone - this is why users can conveniently share almost everything through any app on Android phone - Bosschert's app had no difficulty gaining access to WhatsApp data.

Bosschert wrote that the code that allows his application to access WhatsApp data and then upload it to his web server can be added to a popular Android app by a rogue developer to fool users and steal WhatsApp chat logs.

The older versions of WhatsApp were so insecure that they didn't even encrypt their data stored on SD card. The data from older versions of whatsApp could be read by anyone once it was uploaded on the web server. Even the data from newer version of WhatsApp, which uses encryption, can be accessed with ease.

"The WhatsAppp database is a SQLite3 database which can be converted to Excel for easier access. Lately WhatsApp is using encryption to encrypt the database, so it can no longer be opened by SQLite. But we can simply decrypt this database using a simple python script. This script converts the crypted database to a plain SQLite3 database," wrote Bosschert. "We can conclude that every application can read the WhatsApp database and it is also possible to read the chats from the encrypted databases."

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Bosschert joked, "Facebook didn't need to buy WhatsApp to read your chats."

The security issue apparently doesn't exist on iPhones or Windows Phone devices because on these smartphones, apps have limited access to storage and other phone hardware. The more flexible access to phone hardware allows Android apps to talk to each other and helps a user quickly share content between apps. This is very convenient compared to what is possible on iPhone or Windows Phone, where it is difficult to share content between apps. But it also exposes data to rogue apps.

Google says that it keeps an eye on apps inside its Play store and removes apps if they pose any security risks. But this doesn't negate the fact that theoretically it is possible for a rogue app to do more damage on Android because of the open nature of the OS compared to iOS, which uses silos. Google also advises people against installing apps that don't come through Play store. By default Android phones are set to not install apps downloaded outside the Play store.

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Now, charge your mobile phone while you walk

Scientists have developed a new device that can generate electricity from your body movements to power your mobile phone.

The device built by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology consists of four discs layered on top of one another.

The first disc is made of copper, and rotates. The next is a polymer and remains stationary, and the third is a gold layer that is divided into sectors, with alternating sections cut out, to make something that looks like a bicycle wheel. The last layer is made of acrylic.

When the copper disc rotates, positive charges in the copper move past the negative charges in the polymer. This causes an imbalance of charges in the gold layer, with each "spoke" of gold having either more positive or more negative charges.
The imbalance means that when a wire is connected between sectors, a current flows.

The team led by researcher Zhong Lin Wang said the device can generate power as long as something causes the copper disc to rotate.

The device works on the same principle as static electricity. For example, when you walk on a rug in wool socks, electrons build up in the socks (and in you), and when you touch a metal doorknob, they jump from your finger, making a spark, 'LiveScience' reported.

Wang said the new device is more efficient than a traditional generator, at least for its size.

A generator works by moving either a wire through a magnetic field or a magnetic field over a stationary wire. Either one requires a certain number of turns of wire to make a certain voltage, plus a strong magnet.

However, the device the researchers created can be made thin and flat. The prototype demonstrated by Wang was about 10 centimetres across, and swinging it in the hand generated enough electricity to power a small array of lights, or about 5 volts, which is enough to charge an iPhone.

Wang said the device is 50 times more efficient than a traditional generator of the same size.

The details of the device are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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Soon, free global Wi-Fi service from outer space?

A US company is planning to build an 'Outernet' — a global network of cube satellites broadcasting internet data to all the people on the planet — for free. The idea is to offer free internet access to all people, regardless of location, bypassing filtering or other means of censorship, according to the New York based non-profit organization , Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF).

MDIF proposes that hundreds of cube satellites be built and launched to create a constellation of sorts in the sky, allowing anyone with a phone or computer to access Internet data sent to the satellites by several hundred ground stations.

The organization claims that 40% of the people in the world today are still not able to connect to the internet — and it's not just because of restrictive governments such as North Korea — it's also due to the high cost of bringing service to remote areas, 'phys.org' reported.

An Outernet would allow people from Siberia to parts of the western US to remote islands or villages in Africa to receive the same news as those in New York or Tokyo.

The Outernet would be one-way — data would flow from feeders to the satellites which would broadcast to all below. MDIF plans to add the ability to transmit from anywhere as well as soon as funds become available.

MDIF has acknowledged that building such a network would not be cheap. Such satellites typically run $100,000 to $300,000 to build and launch. The timeline for the project calls for deploying the initial cubesats as early as next summer.

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Nokia working on 3 Android smartphones: Report

While it is widely expected that Nokia will unveil its first Android smartphone - Nokia X - next week at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014, it is rumoured that the company has more Android handsets in the works.

According to a report by Chinese technology website tech.qq.com, internal emails leaked by sources at Silicon Valley company Artesyn technologies say that Nokia is working on two Android smartphones other than Nokia X. While one has been codenamed Nokia XX, the codename of the other model is not yet known. The former will be positioned above the entry-level Nokia X, while the latter will be a high-end handset. The specifications of these two models are not yet known.

While Nokia has already started working on these two Android smartphones, they are not expected to be unveiled at MWC. In fact, it is said that the manufacturer will launch X only to see the market response to its first Android smartphone.

All three Android smartphones by Nokia are expected to hit the market in May-June. Nokia X is said to cost approximately $110.

The Finnish manufacturer is widely expected to unveil the Nokia X on February 24. The device is said to have a 4-inch screen with 800x480p resolution and run on 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor. It will have 512MB RAM, 5MP rear camera, Bluetooth 4.0, Android 4.4 (KitKat) operating system and 4GB internal storage. It is said to be a dual-sim smartphone and come in six colour options.

While Nokia X will run on Android, it will have a customized user interface and will not have access to Google Play Store and the apps available on the platform. Speculation is rife that Nokia and Microsoft will put their own set of apps - such as Facebook, Twitter and Here Maps - on the device via a proprietary app store, much like Amazon does on Kindle Fire range of tablets.

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