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Android: How To Protect Against Malware and Viruses For Free

Posted on 28 Jan 2013 in Android, ArmorText, Awareness, Cyber Security, Gryphn Secure Text Messaging, Security 0 Comments

Brand New Android: How To Protect Against Malware and Viruses

Unlike the iOS App Store, the Google Play store is a much more open and accessible marketplace. This makes it easier to develop for Android, but it also means that users are vulnerable to malware and viruses posing as useful or fun apps.

Even if you haven’t downloaded an app from the Play store yet, your phone is still extremely vulnerable to loss or theft. It’s likely you keep personal data, business correspondence, or even banking information on your device. How can you protect that data if the device goes missing?

People are trusting their devices with more personal data, while at the same time malware and viruses are becoming more ambitious and common. These two trends have been met with the rise of mobile security apps, protecting users from these exact threats.

Below are three apps that keep the user safe from most of threats to their data and mobile device.
Brand New Android: How To Protect Against Malware and Viruses

Lookout Mobile Security (Free, with a Premium option)

The main threats for Android users exist on the Google Play store, which is why apps like Lookout exist. During setup, it scans your old apps for malware and viruses. After initial setup, it runs in the background, scanning new apps as they are downloaded.

Not only does Lookout provide basic malware protection, it also comes with several other security and peace-of-mind features. Upon logging in to your Lookout account on their website, you can locate the device on a map or make your phone or tablet “scream” (much louder than your ringer and works even if your phone is on silent). Premium users ($2.99/mo or 29.99/year) can also lock the device and wipe all data if it is permanently lost or stolen.

Lookout even backs up contacts, pictures and call history to the web portal, although picture and call history backups are only available to premium users.

Brand New Android: How To Protect Against Malware and Viruses

Avast! Mobile Security (Free)

Where Lookout provides simplicity and ease of use, Avast! Mobile Security provides an utterly exhaustive feature set. In addition to securing you from malware and virus threats, you can locate the device, sound a siren, lock the device, wipe the device, call the device, send a message to the device and much more, right from the Avast! portal.

Unlike Lookout, Avast! places a heavy emphasis protecting you and your data if your device is lost or stolen. Avast! Anti-Theft features allow a user to force the data connection to stay active so the device can be tracked, lock the phone settings, and prevent USB debugging (which is often used by thieves to reset a device to factory settings after it has been stolen).

Avast! also tries to keep its users aware of privacy and permission settings of the different apps on their device. Privacy Advisor shows you which apps have access to which areas of your device, but as far as I can tell does nothing to help you limit that access from within the app. Network Meter tracks how much data each app is using, which is helpful for those of us who aren’t using unlimited data plans.

Because it has most of the features Lookout has, Avast! could be used as a replacement for lookout, but if used together, they present a very thorough security solution for Android devices.

Brand New Android: How To Protect Against Malware and Viruses

Gryphn Secure Text Messaging (Free)

Lookout protects the information on your device from falling prey to malware and viruses on the Google Play store, while Avast! is a great solution for preventing your data from getting into the wrong hands if the phone is lost or stolen, but what about the contents of your text messages, on the phone and coming and going from your device?

Gryphn Secure Text Messaging replaces your stock texting app and encrypts text, picture and video messages, both on your device and in transit. Even if you do have the misfortune to download malware or come into contact with a virus, neither of these will be able to access any of your messages, images or any other texting content.

After the quick setup process you are greeted by a clean interface (based on the stock Android Jelly Bean messaging app) and all of your old text conversations, ready to continue them in a safer environment.

If you have friends, family or colleagues who have the app, you can enable encryption for those conversations, meaning your messages are encrypted in transit and decrypted by their device on the other end. Even your wireless carrier, which usually stores your text messages for anywhere from 3 months to a year, can’t read what you are saying. Only the sender and the recipient can read encrypted messages.

States Can’t Agree on Smartphone Privacy: Businesses Protect Themselves (continued)

Posted on 26 Dec 2012 in Android, Apple, ArmorText applications, BYOD, Enterprise, News, Security, State Texting Laws 0 Comments

Continued from last week…

Overcoming uncertainty

To view the mobile security and privacy problem in management terms, consider that businesses generally dislike uncertainty of any kind. But the mobile revolution and resulting patchwork quilt of search and seizure laws across borders suggests plenty of businesses have zero certainty about whose hands their data could fall into. Once an unencrypted device is imaged, there is no going back. It is impossible to know with certainty how law enforcement authorities here or anywhere will parse patent drawings; budget spreadsheets or acquisition plans while searching for evidence. There are too many variables. Even if we assume authorizes will act in good faith and take measures to respect confidentiality, encryption is a far better bargain for applying controls over information, particularly if you are a lawyer worried about attorney-client privilege or work in an industry subject to tough data protection regimes. As mobile device searches become increasingly routine enterprise data swept up in evidence searches – “caught in the crossfire,” if you will – may have to be deemed “compromised,” if only for practical purposes.

The way forward

Companies need to monitor the global regulatory picture closely. The best defense, of course, is to compartmentalize access and information. A salesperson headed overseas does not need to carry your patent portfolio through border crossings. But except for these kinds of obvious cases, reconfiguring devices and networks around today’s shifting job roles and travel is tedious and impractical. Plus, when you strip-down handhelds to the point where they become safely “expendable” you start to offset the business value of all these great tools and connectivity. Why not build a standardized mobile security profile with encryption instead and let users bring the apps they need to be productive? Senior executives need to lay the foundation here by looking at requirements, risks that can be tolerated and mitigating them as far as possible.

On the technology side, mobile encryption is a powerful tool to tactically deploy in your plan. To securely harden many common types of smartphones quickly, look for encryption tools that to not require cumbersome hardware accessories or multi-tasking between apps just to read e-mail. Such ease of deployment positively empowers users and helps different types of devices in a company to benefit from consistent protection. Users of different hardware that all run some version of Android, for example, can in most cases go to the same app storefront and pull down their own security software. As technology rewrites our legal and societal perceptions of trust, privacy and security, businesses and consumers should expect continued legal dust-ups and uncertain times. Often the only recourse is to seize the initiative by taking proactive control. In this spirit, armoring-up your smartphone is easily done and could spare your company and career from needless future worry and pain.

Secure messaging with Gryphn’s app:

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Merry Christmas Android Malware! Make Sure Your New Toy Isn’t out to Get You

Posted on 24 Dec 2012 in Android, ArmorText applications, Cyber Security 0 Comments

Have a new Android app you got for Christmas?

Make sure it’s not malware, stealing your data, uploading your contact information to a foreign server or sending premium international SMS messages at your expense! Check the list below for the worst offenders:

3D Anti-terrorist

Android.Trojan.SMSSend

Android.Trojan.FakeInst

Beware of an HTC flaw allows malicious apps to steal WiFi passwords

Many apps not on this list threaten user security. Protect yourself in advance so even if one of those new toys you downloaded happens to be malware, it won’t have access to your data. Have a Merry Christmas. Enjoy your new Android apps!

Secure your device from malicious apps with Lookout

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States Can’t Agree on Smartphone Privacy: Businesses Protect Themselves

Posted on 21 Dec 2012 in ArmorText, ArmorText applications, Awareness, Evidence, Security, State Texting Laws 0 Comments

What’s in your phone?

Mounting uncertainty around warrantless device searches means mobile encryption is becoming even more essential for businesses

Laws are trying to keep up with technology, particularly in areas like privacy and information security. Many of the keystone regulations and legal precedents the government and private sector live by in this arena were conceived well before smartphones, tablets, and today’s Web itself were even imaginable.

In a perfect example, the New York Times recently published a survey of courts and legislatures in various states and how they have addressed the legal uncertainty surrounding warrantless cell phone searches conducted by law enforcement authorities. (We offer a state by state synopsis beginning here). Judges and state legislatures delivery complimentary, contradictory and downright oppositional rulings on the conditions necessary for law enforcement to perform cell phones searches. Is a warrant required? What if the phone is on your person? Is your location data the property of the providers? Years ago the data on your phone might have been limited to scrolling through call logs and contacts. However, the ramifications are much greater with today’s smartphones, which are repositories of, not only our calendars and contacts, but the apps we use and data we send through them, as well as Web histories, multimedia libraries and geo-location data. All this before we even consider the confidential corporate data many of us keep in our personal devices. (See a State by State breakdown of cell phone privacy laws)

Everyone wants a peek

The phenomenal growth of mobile devices around the world is triggering disruptive and unpredictable regulatory issues for monitoring communications and searching devices. The smartest business strategy, accordingly, for companies worried about new risks to sensitive information is strong encryption tools, for communications security and safeguarding sensitive workplace information that inevitably ends up on mobile. This is much broader issue than U.S. domestic concerns. In recent years India, the United Arab Emirates and other countries pressured Research in Motion to grant their state authorities access to BlackBerry users’ BBM and e-mail traffic within their borders. In a similar vein, there have been concerns over whether U.S. and other countries’ border security screenings compromise business secrets if and when laptops and other media are searched. In these and other examples, the more portable and indispensable devices become, the more exposure they have to these issues.

More devices, more problems

The current “bring your own device” (BYOD) movement introduces more mobiles to business settings. The usability of these devices means it is only a matter of time before confidential office information starts flooding into these handhelds. Employees copy files to them. They intentionally (or inadvertently) activate file-sync and back-up apps that replicate confidential files to the cloud and to every gadget they own. These and many other actions risk exposing sensitive information to unauthorized publics. After all, the more copies of something you have, the more likely one copy stands to be lost or viewed by others. Yet, if a business does not have the legal grounds or employee buy-in to dictate precisely how mobiles are configured and used, they must (uncomfortably) rely on uneven user awareness and habits to keep handhelds away from malicious code, thieves – and now evidence lockers, too. It is one thing for a company to get a call from authorities explaining why an employee’s device (that is hypothetically central to an investigation) needs to be unlocked, since this is a matter that can be appropriately handled with corporate counsel and dialogue. But it’s quite another case when you have a searched device handed back to you after the fact – knowing encryption was not in place to prevent data from being viewed, copied or altered – and worry about what might have been exposed.

To Be Continued…

Secure messaging with Gryphn’s app:

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The Healthcare Innovation and Marketplace Technologies Act: HR6626

Posted on 19 Dec 2012 in Android, ArmorText, BYOD, Healthcare, HIPAA, NIST 0 Comments

On December 3, 2012, Representative Mike Honda of California introduced The Healthcare Innovation and Marketplace Technologies Act (HIMTA) with the intent to foster more innovation in the health care industry by removing barriers in wireless health.

This bill offers loans, tax relief, and grants for Health Information Technology not covered by EHR incentives, offering up to $250,000 in a taxable year for medical care providers. Health Information Technology that would qualify for these loans includes “storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of health care information, data and knowledge for communication and decision-making.”

Small businesses are elibible to receive loans or financing for any health information technology that “enhance(s) continuity of care for patients ..such that this information is accessible at the times and places where clinical decisions will be or are likely to be made; (as well as) enhancement of communication between patients and health care providers (and) technology that has already been purchased.”

There is a particular emphasis placed on technologies that will be widely adopted and useful for patients, patient engagement, doctor-patient consultation and patient health monitoring. These technologies are offered grants and prizes.

Office of Wireless Health Technology

This document would also establish the Office of Wireless Health Technology, a subsidiary of the FDA designed to coordinate regulation of wireless health technology across federal agencies, offices and institutes such that such regulation might be “more robust, predictable, and easily understood and navigated by indiiduals and entities that design, produce, disseminate, or have a prevailing interest in wireless health technology.”

Mobile Health Software Application Tehcnology is defined thus;

A:) Offers health-related services and runs on a mobile device; OR

B:) enables health-related services through other portals associated with the use of a mobile device.

We have visited the unnecessarily confusing topic of regulatory requirements on mobile previously, calling for consistency and clarity similar to the aspirations present in the first draft of this bill. FINRA, FIPS, HIPAA and the DoD Mobile Strategy all contain similar concepts and security measures.

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Policy and Regulatory Environments: A Mobile Perspective

Posted on 17 Dec 2012 in Android, ArmorText, BYOD, Healthcare, HIPAA 0 Comments

Gryphn had the pleasure to attend breakout sessions, in particular, “Policy & Regulatory Environments: A Mobile Perspective.” This session was moderated by Robert Jarrin of Qualcomm Incorporated and the panel included Lee Kim, Tucker Arsenberg PC; Ali Pabrai, CEO of ecfirst; James Ravitz, Partner at Arent Fox; and Marcy Wilder, Hogan Lovells US.

The panelists spoke about various regulations and their standards for mobile devices in the healthcare industry. mHealth is a topic of debate in the areas of: meaningful use, security on the device, breaches, and the introduction of a new bill called the Healthcare Innovation and Marketplace Technologies Act.

WHY MEANINGFUL USE:

The meaningful use program is a set of standards that are used to oversee the use of electronic health records (EHRs) and permits eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentives if they meet certain criteria. The meaningful use of EHRS supports complete and accurate information, better access to that information, and patient empowerment.

WHAT IS SECURITY ON THE DEVICE:

The rules and regulations that healthcare providers are required to follow, set standards for how devices should be secured. Encryption is “the last line of defense”, a required step that comes into play in the worst case scenarios of loss, theft, or hacking. it keeps the data protected even if the device itself is in the wrong hands. However,while encryption should be standard, is not enough. All devices, mobile or not, require strong authentication at the front and back end as well as audit controls.

WHERE DO DEVICE BREACHES COME FROM:

The moderator, Robert Jarrin, asked the panelists if it was true that most breaches come from the inside, believing loss to be more prevalent than hacks or theft. The panelists agreed. A lost device is as vulnerable as a stolen device if it does not have the necessary security measures installed. Some of these threats come from social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Both have links that if clicked could download Trojans that steal data without your knowledge.

HEALTHCARE INNOVATION AND MARKETPLACE TECHNOLOGIES ACT:

The panelists mentioned a new bill that was introduced Monday, the first day of the summit, called the Healthcare Innovation and Marketplace Technologies Act. The purpose of this new bill is to increase innovation in mobile health and other health care technologies. This legislation would require the FDA to set up a new wireless health technology office. The FDA would work with other government agencies and private businesses to help build a “consistent, reasonable, and predictable regulatory framework” for wireless and digital health tools. This bill would also:

Set up a HHS program to help mobile health developers create technologies that follow the necessary privacy and security regulations
Help small businesses purchase the necessary IT health devices through a low-interest program.
Institute tax incentive programs to give healthcare providers incentives to use the modern health technologies.
Establish a grant program to support healthcare providers who retrain employees for new health technology positions
Begin new prize and grant programs to increase new health IT device development,

Many policies and regulations that healthcare providers are required to follow have not yet found their modern interpretation. Mobile technologies are still discovering their footing, both in terms of violations and permissible use.

Secure messaging with Gryphn’s app:

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mHealth 2012 Recap: Doctors are Texting and Healthcare Wants Protection from HIPAA Violations

Posted on 14 Dec 2012 in ArmorText, BYOD, Healthcare, HIPAA, News, Press 0 Comments

Our presence at the mHealth Summit 2012 was a great success. We were offered and took advantage of a booth in the primary and startup pavilions, receiving press for both. Our two locations were advantageous as we were able to funnel interested parties from our startup table to our relaxing couch and charging station in the main area. Our product was featured on camera, and we managed a flood of interested healthcare and healthcare related companies.

We learned more about our market, straight from the providers, users and practitioners themselves. Though aware of the risks, Doctors are still texting. They are downloading any text messaging app available on the app store that claims to secure text messaging and be HIPAA compliant. Providers, threatened with HIPAA related fines up to $4.3M, are interested in creating a cohesive policy, managing risks to confirm the safety of PHI and thus of HIPAA compliance. Representatives were searching for texting best practices, comparing and contrasting various secure texting options available on the market in order to make a recommendation to implement as policy. Here is a sample of our comparison, focused exclusively on usability. If you are interested in our comparisons in the basic and advanced security departments, please contact us.

We received requests for protecting and tracking Doctor-patient text messages and their affect on patient behavior. Do patients that receive messages from their doctor have a reduced number of in-office visits? Some research regarding increased contact via mobile device suggests so. We have developed our solutions specifically to adhere to HIPAA guidelines and are open to development solutions and applications in the Doctor-patient relationship. We are currently conducting pilots, let’s see how we can work together.

Secure messaging with Gryphn’s app:

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BYOD in Healthcare: Now Please Make It Work!

Posted on 6 Dec 2012 in Android, ArmorText, ArmorText applications, BYOD, Healthcare, HIPAA 0 Comments

Gryphn recently attended the mHealth conference and spoke with the following individuals: Lisa Gallagher Senior Director HIMSS, Brian Balow Member Dickinson Wright PLLC, Eleanor Chye Executive Director AT&T David Houlding Lead Architect Intel, Jay Savaiano Director CommVault. These interactions led to a more complete view of the healthcare space and the importance of secure messaging solutions such as Gryphn’s Enterprise Solutions that work with BYOD.

BYOD in Healthcare

BYOD penetration into healthcare is significant. According to an AT&T representative, more than 80% of healthcare workers on their network are using a smartphone at work.

“CIO’s and CSO are saying they can’t stop it (BYOD); it’s like a freight train running them over.” – Lisa Gallagher of HIMSS

Yet the improper use of these smartphones is damaging hospital reputations, destroying careers and driving fear of the devices in healthcare environments. On August 30th Cignet Health was fined $4.3M for HIPAA violations and investigation obstruction. A nurse was fired for texting an image containing PHI, even though that image saved a patient’s life (link pending). Fines like these deter even the most stalwart hospitals from communicating PHI.

“When hospitals are asked ‘Do you even want BYOD’, many are saying NO.” – Brian Balow of Dickinson Wright PLLC

Yet the largest fine to date in regards to HIPAA was for patients who requested and were denied their own PHI. The dichotomy of HIPAA and HITECH are their regulatory imperative to safeguard patient data while simultaneously making it available. Protect and share. HHS and the OCR have demonstrated the relative weight of non-compliance with each section: $1.5M for failing to protect patient data, $4.3M for failing to share it with the patient.

Security Must Work FOR the Healthcare Practitioner, AND the Patient

Security policies are required to protect patient data, but these policies cannot obstruct the delivery of data to the healthcare practitioners who need it. Security cannot obstruct information flow or care quality.

“Security cannot slow these devices down…workers will find workarounds to bypass IT. We have to improve user experience with security.” – David Houlding of INTEL

Secure messaging with Gryphn’s app:

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MDM And BYOD Possibilities In Healthcare

Posted on 23 Nov 2012 in ArmorText, BYOD, Healthcare, HIPAA 1 Comment

BYOD, the bring-your-own-device trend that is sweeping enterprises, is not new to the healthcare industry. For years, doctors have been bringing their own cell phones to work, but have relied on pagers for secure communications. As the pager becomes obsolete, doctors are turning to their personal devices for communications. This is a boon to the budgets of healthcare IT departments, no longer required to purchase mobile communications equipment, but it presents a whole new problem in properly maintaing these devices to protect patient information and remain HIPAA compliant. Many hospitals are overwhelmed with (mobile device management) MDM and BYOD possibilities.

“There’s this momentum within healthcare where physicians or clinicians are bringing their own devices into work, and they want to use them in the practice of medicine,” Eric Westerlind of KLAS. “That’s a good thing because [these devices] are flexible … and there’s this coordination of care benefit. But the concern for providers is how do we secure these devices and make sure they’re HIPAA compliant, because the last thing they want to be is the guy on the front of the newspaper.”

Top Concerns: HIPAA Violations

Mobile device HIPAA violations can entail large fines, jail time, and ruin a hospital’s reputation. To avoid these violations, hospitals are turning towards encryption and MDM policies. All communications, including text messages, and documents about patients need to be secured by encryption. IT departments also need to be able to wipe the device remotely in case of loss or theft. BYOD can be an effective system if applied correctly.

Following In The VA’s Footsteps

Recently, the Veteran’s Affairs (VA) adopted an MDM solution, which may be the first step in regulatory modernization among hospitals. By using an MDM, 85% of doctors who were already bringing their mobile device to work, are able to use these devices to complete their work, while still protecting the privacy and PHI of former soldiers and marines at VA treatment facilities. By following the V.A’s lead, hospitals can apply mobile device policies of their choice to protect their own patients in all communications.

MDM + Secure Texting

An MDM solution is important and capable of solving a lot of BYOD issues for hospitals, but an MDM is only as valuable as the apps it can mandate the existence on the device, such as secure text messaging. More than 70% of doctors have admitted to texting other doctors and 72% believe within the next 3 years secure text messaging will replace pagers. MDM solutions must also maintain an up-to-date list of malware that is banned from the device.

Armortext is the perfect solution that can be used on its own or joined with MDM. It allows users to exchange public encryption keys, encrypt text messages, and secure text, audio, video and picture messaging. ArmorText users are able to control how messages are distributed in the future, the sender controls if the recipient can copy or forward and soon delete the content on the receiving device. ArmorText is the only application on the market that is secure enough to satisfy the VA and other U.S. Government encryption standards at the highest levels.

Secure messaging with Gryphn’s app:

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Text Messages As Evidence? Missouri and Washington

Posted on 19 Nov 2012 in ArmorText, Evidence, Security, State Texting Laws 0 Comments

In this next segment of text messages as evidence in court, we will take a look at Missouri and Washington. The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule on this issue, though when they do, they will likely pull information from previous cases handled state by state.

Missouri

This state, like Ohio and Rhode Island, holds that text messages should have an expectation of privacy. In the case State v. Clampitt, the defendant was charged with involuntary manslaughter and investigators subpoenaed his text messages in hopes they would find a profession of guilt. The prosecutor claimed that “the text messages were records that were in possession of a third party,” and he attempted to argue that a search warrant would not have been necessary. The court disagreed and threw out the text messages as evidence and the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld the original ruling.

“[A]s text messaging becomes an ever-increasing substitute for the more traditional forms of communication, it follows that society expects the contents of text messages to receive the same Fourth Amendment protections afforded to letters and phone calls.”

Washington State

Like Florida, Georgia, and California, Washington also has allowed text messages as evidence in court without a search warrant or subpoena. Police officers arrested a man for dealing drugs, during his arrest the officers seized his cell phone. A text message was received, on the confiscated cell phone, from someone attempting to buy drugs. The police responded to the message, posing as the dealer and set up a buy. When the man arrived, he was immediately arrested for trying to buy heroin. The text messages were allowed in court because the grand jury voted that it was legal. Their ruling considers text messages to be public domain, which may set a precedent for other cases in the future.

This Washington Court deemed “that text messages are not private and any message a user sends, or in some cases receives, can be used against them in a court of law.”

For states that allow text messages as evidence in court without a search warrant or subpoena, ArmorText circumvents this and protects text message privacy. In the Washington case, the arrestee’s phone only had one password to unlock the phone, which allowed the officers to see incoming texts. If the arrestee had his phone setup to require a password entry before reading any text messages, then the officers would have been forced to obtain a court order or search warrant. Regardless of what may be on your phone, everybody has the right to privacy and should take advantage of this right.

Stay tuned as we continue the state by state texting exposé!

Secure messaging with Gryphn’s app:

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