Bobby. wrote on Apr 27
th, 2020 at 7:29pm:
Hey, Turn Bluetooth Off When You're Not Using It
In light of the latest Bluetooth-related security meltdown, a friendly PSA.
Minimizing your Bluetooth usage minimizes your exposure to very real vulnerabilities. That includes an attack called BlueBorne, announced this week by the security firm Armis, which would allow any affected device with Bluetooth turned on to be attacked through a series of vulnerabilities. The flaws aren't in the Bluetooth standard itself, but in its implementation in all sorts of software. Windows, Android, Linux, and iOS have been vulnerable to BlueBorne in the past. Millions could still be at risk.
https://www.wired.com/story/turn-off-bluetooth-security/ This highlights a major problem with this COVIDsafe app - in the case of my Samsung Galaxy S5 phone, it hasn't had any security updates for nearly 3 years so there's no way I am going to leave Bluetooth enabled for any length of time.
Lack of updates is also why I never have my phone connected to the Internet and also have mobile data turned off. It is also prepaid which would cause my credit to be eaten away rapidly if it was connected to the Internet with mobile data.
And, they can forget about me buying a new phone like a lot of people do every year. I'll keep running my S5 until it dies, thank you.
I thought I read somewhere a couple of years back that something was going to be done about Android devices (especially Samsung) being 'abandoned' regarding security updates after about 12 months from when they're released but, as usual, nothing seems to have happened so far.
And, I see it didn't take long for the BS to start:
Hoax text 'from COVIDSafe app' claims to track usershttps://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-fake-message-government-app-tracki...Just waiting for the 'special' malware infested version of this app to be released now. Won't be too far off, I'm sure.