Mumbai: Realising the need to curb increasing malware count, Google’s latest operating system Android Nougat will employ a new condition that will prevent ransomwares from resetting a device’s password using the ‘resetPassword’ API.According to a Symantec report, numerous dangerous malwares including Android.Lock.E variants with advanced capabilities emerged during the first quarter of 2105. All these malwares are capable of tricking the users and resetting their lockscreen password used primarily to access the device.

Symantec said, “Even users who manage to remove the malware without resetting the device may be unable to use the phone because they won’t be able to get around the password the malware sets.”An earlier research by the security firm showed that these ransomware malware set or rest home-screen passwords (either a pin or pattern) by summoning the ‘resetPassword’ API.

Nougat to the rescue

According to the new report, Android Nougat will introduce a new clause/condition to prevent the invocation of resetPassword API for resetting the passwords; only setting the password will be allowed.“This development will be effective in ensuring that malware cannot reset the lockscreen password, as the change is strictly enforced and there is no backward compatibility escape route for the threat,” said the report.

However, users should also be cautious of the fact that the new OS will prevent malwares from resetting the password; it won’t stop them from setting the password on devices with no existing passwords.Unfortunately, the new feature will also affect standalone disinfection utilities that are largely dependent on ‘resetpassword’ API. A disinfector tool is an automated tool designed to help users to combat devices with an infected malware.“With Android Nougat’s new restrictions, the disinfector’s ability to call that API is bound to fail. This is likely to affect a small percentage of users who use disinfectors,” added the report.

To help prevent mobile threats, the security firm has listed down a few tips:

Keep your software up to date
Refrain from downloading apps from unfamiliar sites and only install apps from trusted sources
Pay close attention to the permissions requested by apps
Install a suitable mobile security app, such as Norton, to protect your device and data
Make frequent backups of important data

Mumbai: Streaming a video online is probably one of the biggest predicaments faced by users, especially in developing countries where internet data packs are not only costly but also sluggish.To bridge this gap, Google’s YouTube had started offline video feature a couple of years, allowing users to download or sync videos to watch later. Following its footsteps, social media giant Facebook is also planning to test a similar feature in India starting July 11.

According to technology website TechCrunch, the new feature will help users in India, which has the slowest average Internet connection among APAC countries, by allowing them to download videos using Wi-Fi and view it offline on its app later on.This news comes as a good development for video publishers, who were previously ticked off by Facebook’s new News Feed rules that now lists content posted family and friends above people who create content. As per the social networking giant, this new feature will act as a stimulus to people who otherwise skip unnecessary videos on their news feed.

However, there is a catch. Facebook is also completely aware of the fact that the vast social media space is filled with piracy-mongers who would take advantage of offline video sharing for their own benefits. To curb individuals with such intentions, it will securely lock the videos within its app and it won’t be stored in the device’s local memory even after downloading.Moreover, the publishers also have the option to opt out of the feature by disabling the downloading option from their page’s Content Distribution setting. Well, that wouldn’t matter too much as people will only be able to post original videos on their personal accounts or pages.

In a email to TechCrunch, Facebook Said: “We’ve heard feedback that in markets like India, mobile data and internet connectivity is limited and many people struggle with poor video experiences. So we’re testing an option for people to download videos to Facebook while they’re online on good internet connections, to view the video at anytime, online or offline, without using extra mobile data.”

To put matters to perspective, videos are becoming a prominent part of social media and it has now become an imperative to showcase them with the inception of better video technologies. Earlier, the company had introduced Facebook Live—a video live streaming feature which has gained immense popularity among users.While the offline video viewing feature will be a great development for users in India and other developing countries, it will also help the company push lucrative video ads in future.