Security: Android, Viruses, Malware, and Worms

[Courtesy AndroidAuthority]

Android: Malware Infestations for 2013

2013 Ending
Rounding out the 2013 Year with More Android Virus and Malware issues.

• 2013-12-17 - Android and SMS Text Messages to China
  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/17/android_botnet/

• 2013-12-17 - Android Anti-Virus Unable to Kill Malware
  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/17/android_anti_malware/

Somehow, this is no surprise.

2013 Investigation
A previous Network Management article discussing Android Malware from 2013 - not a pleasant place to be. Nearly a new Android exploit was uncovered every 2 weeks.

2013 Conclusions
A recent article in The Register mentions the dangers of Java and Android (which is based upon a Java port) on network clients:

Meanwhile, fully 99 per cent of all mobile malware discovered during the year targeted Android, as did 71 per cent of all web-based attacks on mobile devices.

Android mobile devices are less expensive than the alternative - but there is clearly a price to be paid.

EMC Smarts: Watch4Net APG Data Purging

A short note about default behavior within EMC Smarts Watch4Net APG

How to delete a device in Watch4Net. 

With default settings, APG will delete a device (or one of its component) and its history if it’s not updated for 1 full year. However, for some reason, you may want to manually override this behavior without changing the automated configuration. APG provides a tool that allows you to delete data from the database. It’s only available to administrative users, in the “Administration” pane and it’s called “Management of APG Metrics”. To use this tool, you have to:
• Set a filter to select the data to delete
• Type in the maximum number of results
• Check whether or not the last timestamp is displayed
• Select the properties to show
• Then, click the “Query” button
• Results will appear in the box below
• Last, just click the “Delete” button to delete all these data from APG 

There is no out-of-the-box way to de-provision from the command line.

Conclusions:

If a site runs out of licenses, the GUI may crash and refuse to remain running... a very poorly written application result - but hey, EMC is not supporting high-end platforms like Solaris any longer, so what can you expect? Make sure you have spare licenses within Watch4Net to handle customer on boarding and off boarding - otherwise you may have some unexpected results!