Page 3 - index

In no particular order here are some returns, but PC Magazine’s March issue includes
computing odds ‘n ends I’ve accumu- a review of computer-based income tax programs.
lated from the Internet, PC publications Their Editor’s Choice is Turbo Tax Deluxe. They
and a library presentation ….. give it high marks in virtually every category – in-
cluding ease of use, thoroughness, amount of
As we add apps to our smartphones, supplementary information available and custom-
we must agree to a variety of permis- er support. Competing products such as H&R
sions. For many, this has become a Block, Tax Act and others matched Turbo Tax in
routine process akin to agreeing to the some categories, but fell short in others; hence
End User License Agreement (EULA) that we have their choice of the current version of Turbo Tax.
encountered in the past whenever we installed an
application program on our computers. And, just as In case you missed the news reports, some Apple
most of us did not take time to read through long EU- computers have just been hit with a ransomware
LAs and think about the ramifications of what we variant. This is big news, since Apple has gener-
were agreeing to, many of us today do not pay much ally been able to stay ahead of the bad guys in the
attention to the permissions we are granting when past. It turns out that this current problem repre-
we install an app on our smartphone. After all, if sents a new ransomware approach that installs
thousands or hundreds of thousands of other users malware embedded in an update to a third-party
have installed this app, how serious can the permis- app. The bad guys broke into the Transmission
sions be? BitTorrent app website and were able to embed
their malware in a Transmission update prior to its
At a recent library presentation about apps, the release. Once the infected update was installed
speaker suggested that the audience consider in- by the unsuspecting Apple Mac user nothing hap-
stalling one or more apps which analyze all of your pened for three days. At that point, the malware
phone apps and report to you exactly what permis- activated and encrypted the user’s files.
sions you have actually granted. The idea, of
course, is to encourage the phone user to rethink (In the past, ransomware victims usually had to be
whether or not the benefit from each app is worth the tricked into clicking on a link or opening an infect-
privacy he or she is giving up in return. The analyti- ed email attachment, thereby activating an exe-
cal app she recommended was “My Permissions”, cutable malware file. In this case, all the victims
which provides basic scanning and reporting for free did was install an update to a previously-installed
and offers additional related services for a fee. app that had an Apple digital certificate. Apple
There are a number of alternatives in the Google has since revoked the certificate for this update to
Play store; some simply scan and report; others al- prevent further installations and Transmission has
low you to block individual permissions within an app rushed a new update to replace the infected ver-
that you otherwise wish to keep using. (However, as sion – hopefully before the three-day delay has
a number of comments pointed out, blocking individ- expired.)
ual permissions can cause the affected app to be-
have strangely – or not at all.) The take-away from all this? The bad guys are
resourceful and creative! Since none of us wants
I have just installed My Permissions on my Android to give up our computer and/or Internet access,
phone, and am now in the process of reconsidering a we need to be careful about links and attachments
number of apps which I have added to my phone and we need to have multiple backups for our da-
since purchase. Some, which I judge to be overly ta – at least one of which is always disconnected
intrusive and do not often use, I am simply unin- to forestall access by malware installed on our
stalling. Others, I may transfer to my Android tablet computer.
– where permission to view my contact list or photos
will be inconsequential (since I store neither on my (As the police sergeant on Hill Street Blues used
tablet). Let’s plan to explore phone privacy further to end roll call, “Be careful out there”!)
at our next smartphone session later this year.

It’s somewhat late to mention this, since many of you
may have already submitted your 2015 income tax

3