As I wrote before there's a relatively long delay between uploading something using your MS account and the thing being published. There's a certification process in between. It is checked if all APIs used in the app are in the app's manifest. The certain APIs mean the app gets checked more thoroughly. It is checked if the app conforms to the requirements and somebody actually looks at it. So if you hack such an account and upload something there's still a lot of hoops to jump through where it can be pulled any time before the app goes live. That's what it means.
As I wrote before there's a relatively long delay between uploading something using your MS account and the thing being published. There's a certification process in between. It is checked if all APIs used in the app are in the app's manifest. The certain APIs mean the app gets checked more thoroughly. It is checked if the app conforms to the requirements and somebody actually looks at it. So if you hack such an account and upload something there's still a lot of hoops to jump through where it can be pulled any time before the app goes live. That's what it means.
So basically, nothing then.
A delay while Microsoft finds someone to look at it isn't always going to be enough.
If someone wanted to act maliciously with that, they'd hack the account, upload the new App, wait until it was posted and then change all the store page branding.
The XDA Developers article raises a good point, at least the Syrian Electronic Army were courteous enough to change the text and images on the Google Play description pages. Imagine if they'd just changed the apps, many of us would have been none the wiser until it was too late...
Thankfully since the furore over Sky Picnic and the more recent phone hacking scandal (irony, I know...) involving a shareholder with a 39.1% stake in BSkyB, I don't use Sky's apps. But it does raise serious questions for security of Google Apps if tomorrow the SEA or another organisation gets into Facebook's app or WhatsApp or King.com or another corporations dev account. Next time, the hackers may not give notice they'd hacked a dev account and are sending malicious updates to Android phones.
I don't know why people are slamming Android, the blame here lies completely with Sky, I'm not convinced they took the proper measures to protect their account.
Sky have been terrible with their support for Android apps as it is, and this incident just proves that they are careless and just don't care. Their apps are often slow and buggy on Android and lack features that have been on the iOS versions for ages. They are dreadful app developers.
I've uninstalled all Sky apps on my Nexus 4 & 7, and to be honest, I'm now never going to install a Sky app on any of my devices again.
I don't know why people are slamming Android, the blame here lies completely with Sky, I'm not convinced they took the proper measures to protect their account.
Sky have been terrible with their support for Android apps as it is, and this incident just proves that they are careless and just don't care. Their apps are often slow and buggy on Android and lack features that have been on the iOS versions for ages. They are dreadful app developers.
I've uninstalled all Sky apps on my Nexus 4 & 7, and to be honest, I'm now never going to install a Sky app on any of my devices again.
Won't you miss the functionality? I like the ability to set recordings on my box and sky go. The sky news app I could live without though.
I agree about Sky's terrible attitude to their customers using android devices.
Won't you miss the functionality? I like the ability to set recordings on my box and sky go. The sky news app I could live without though.
I agree about Sky's terrible attitude to their customers using android devices.
Yes I will miss the functionality, especially as it's factored into my bill but I can just use my girlfriend's 4S for that anyway. Besides I haven't really found myself using the apps that much to be honest as they are quite slow and sometimes unresponsive.
I don't want their apps on my devices any more now, and this shows that they just can't be trusted and don't care about Android users.
I tried removing the Sky Movies App from my Nexus 7, but when I went to Google Play, it told me conflicting issues. One was that it wasn't compatible with this device (which I know it was) and two, It was saying that it wasn't installed in the first place. Which I know damn well it was. Very Strange Indeed. It is still now saying it is Installed under the ALL tab, but is not showing installed under the INSTALLED tab.
That makes sense, I said in my earlier posts that I couldn't see Sky's Twitter team writing that badly, unnecessarily capitalising letters and 'it' instead of 'them' when they were referring to a plural.
How sad this "army" of keyboard soldiers are. I do hope they end up getting caught and locked up at some point.
Sky had plenty of opportunity to correct the information.
There's a good chance they haven't so that the police can gather evidence before they put it back to normal. They may be able to work out how they hacked it and various other computer forensics. File modification times will need to be forensically documented for matching against ISP logs etc.
You can bet these Twitter hacks are being worked on by the Met and they'll be working with international police forces on finding the people behind them.
They also may be waiting on Google to allow them to access the account again if the password has been reset. Google may need to issue new key pairs securely to the developers etc.
Who knows, Sky online and the digital side is a big deal, and they wouldn't prank on that. I just think they are preserving evidence and awaiting it being properly secured.
I doubt the apps were replaced, they just defaced the listing.
There's a good chance they haven't so that the police can gather evidence before they put it back to normal. They may be able to work out how they hacked it and various other computer forensics. File modification times will need to be forensically documented for matching against ISP logs etc.
You can bet these Twitter hacks are being worked on by the Met and they'll be working with international police forces on finding the people behind them.
They also may be waiting on Google to allow them to access the account again if the password has been reset. Google may need to issue new key pairs securely to the developers etc.
Who knows, Sky online and the digital side is a big deal, and they wouldn't prank on that. I just think they are preserving evidence and awaiting it being properly secured.
I doubt the apps were replaced, they just defaced the listing.
I'm not sure that the Syrian government are prioritising catching computer hackers at the minute.
The sky website was not hacked and they had every chance to say that the twitter announcement was not from then.
Sky Apps: We have temporarily removed our Apps from the Google Play store following a security alert.
All Sky Apps were unaffected and any Sky Android apps previously downloaded by customers are safe to use. There is no need to remove them from your android device.
As soon as we have restored the apps on Google Play we will post up an update.
In a related security breach, Twitter has locked access to @SkyHelpTeam, which is why we are currently unable to tweet from this account. However, help and info is available via @SkyHelpTeam1,Facebook and here on the Sky Help Forum
Outage start time: 26 May 2013 - 06:00
Comments
It's not about giving a toss about android. It's about their customers and that their accounts have been hacked and they don't seem that bothered.
As I wrote before there's a relatively long delay between uploading something using your MS account and the thing being published. There's a certification process in between. It is checked if all APIs used in the app are in the app's manifest. The certain APIs mean the app gets checked more thoroughly. It is checked if the app conforms to the requirements and somebody actually looks at it. So if you hack such an account and upload something there's still a lot of hoops to jump through where it can be pulled any time before the app goes live. That's what it means.
So basically, nothing then.
A delay while Microsoft finds someone to look at it isn't always going to be enough.
If someone wanted to act maliciously with that, they'd hack the account, upload the new App, wait until it was posted and then change all the store page branding.
Thankfully since the furore over Sky Picnic and the more recent phone hacking scandal (irony, I know...) involving a shareholder with a 39.1% stake in BSkyB, I don't use Sky's apps. But it does raise serious questions for security of Google Apps if tomorrow the SEA or another organisation gets into Facebook's app or WhatsApp or King.com or another corporations dev account. Next time, the hackers may not give notice they'd hacked a dev account and are sending malicious updates to Android phones.
Sky have been terrible with their support for Android apps as it is, and this incident just proves that they are careless and just don't care. Their apps are often slow and buggy on Android and lack features that have been on the iOS versions for ages. They are dreadful app developers.
I've uninstalled all Sky apps on my Nexus 4 & 7, and to be honest, I'm now never going to install a Sky app on any of my devices again.
Won't you miss the functionality? I like the ability to set recordings on my box and sky go. The sky news app I could live without though.
I agree about Sky's terrible attitude to their customers using android devices.
Yes I will miss the functionality, especially as it's factored into my bill but I can just use my girlfriend's 4S for that anyway. Besides I haven't really found myself using the apps that much to be honest as they are quite slow and sometimes unresponsive.
I don't want their apps on my devices any more now, and this shows that they just can't be trusted and don't care about Android users.
Are their Apps secure?
Should I uninstall my sky apps on my devices ?
I jst signed up to Nowtv, should I cancel ?
There is no app, I access it through HTTPS, so SSL. No third parties involved, so yes.
Trust No one.
My point is that your device does not (and cannot) offer what Sky does through its Apps.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/121287-sky-twitter-hack-was-a-prank-android-apps-not-hacked-and-replaced
I'm not seeing the punchline.
Good to hear that the apps themselves weren't hacked and wouldn't put any users at risk.
That makes sense, I said in my earlier posts that I couldn't see Sky's Twitter team writing that badly, unnecessarily capitalising letters and 'it' instead of 'them' when they were referring to a plural.
How sad this "army" of keyboard soldiers are. I do hope they end up getting caught and locked up at some point.
http://oi44.tinypic.com/fthgk3.jpg
There's a good chance they haven't so that the police can gather evidence before they put it back to normal. They may be able to work out how they hacked it and various other computer forensics. File modification times will need to be forensically documented for matching against ISP logs etc.
You can bet these Twitter hacks are being worked on by the Met and they'll be working with international police forces on finding the people behind them.
They also may be waiting on Google to allow them to access the account again if the password has been reset. Google may need to issue new key pairs securely to the developers etc.
Who knows, Sky online and the digital side is a big deal, and they wouldn't prank on that. I just think they are preserving evidence and awaiting it being properly secured.
I doubt the apps were replaced, they just defaced the listing.
I'm not sure that the Syrian government are prioritising catching computer hackers at the minute.
The sky website was not hacked and they had every chance to say that the twitter announcement was not from then.
That doesn't explain their inability to put out a press release on their proper website or to contact the publications reporting the story.
Yes and if they had written that 24 hours earlier then everyone would have been happy.