Smartphones that are hacked could be used to spy on you

As smartphones become more powerful, they become susceptible to even more sophisticated attacks from hackers. Researchers at Rutgers University in Jersey recently used a special kind of malicious software, or ‘malware,’ called a rootkit to demonstrate just how vulnerable smartphones are. Rootkits are not a new phenomenon. They have been used for two decades to infiltrate various kinds of computers. “The point of this work is not to demonstrate a new kind of rootkit but to show the greater damage they can cause on smart phones,” study team member Liviu Iftode, professor of computer science at Rutgers, told ‘TechNewsDaily’ . Today’s smartphones are really just mobile computers. Many of them run the same class of operating systems as desktop and laptop computers, and as a result are just as vulnerable to malware attacks, the researches say. They add, vulnerabilities in smartphones are even more dangerous because people carry them around at all times, making it easier for attackers to eavesdrop, track locations or even collect personal information . Also, features such as Bluetooth receivers and text messaging make it easier to deliver rootkits to phones. Iftode and his colleagues recently demonstrated different kinds of rootkit attacks. For instance, the microphone on a smartphone can be turned on remotely using rootkits, allowing someone to listen in on anything going on around the owner. Another attack uses a common smartphone feature: GPS receivers . A simple text message allowed researchers to track the location and activity of the owner. Finally, the team used another exploit to turn on all power-hungry applications and features in order to run down the battery quickly, leaving the phone inoperable. The researchers say their intent is not to just scare people, but to inspire action. “What we’re doing is raising a warning flag,” Iftode said. “We’re showing that people with general computer proficiency can create rootkit malware for smart phones. The next step is to work on defenses.” The team used an open-source smartphone called the ‘Openmoko FreeRunner ’ running Linux software, but they emphasised that with enough time and effort, any smartphone operating system can be attacked with malware. The Rutgers team plans to use their results to inspire developers to create new ways to detect attacks on smartphones . “It turns out that solutions that can be used to detect rootkits on a computer environment require modifications to make them applicable to smart phones,” said Vinod Ganapathy, assistant professor at Rutgers.

How Do You Determine Right and Wrong?

One of the big questions in life is, How do you determine right and wrong? Steven Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show one day. He asked the studio audience to close their eyes and point north. When they opened their eyes, there were several hundred arms pointing in wildly different directions. Then Mr. Covey pulled out a compass and said, "This is how we know which way is north. You can't know from within yourself." He used a powerful object lesson to illustrate the way Christian theism answers this big question in life.


Naturalism says that there is no absolute outside of ourselves. There is no final authority because space, time and energy are all that is. There is no such thing as right and wrong because there is no right- and wrong-giver. So naturalism tries to deal with the question of ethics by providing several unsatisfying answers. One is the belief that there is no free choice, that all our behaviors and beliefs are driven by our genes. We are just as determined in our behavior as the smallest animals or insects. Another is the belief that moral values are determined from what is; the way things are is the way they ought to be. If you are being abused by your husband, that's the way things are, so that's the way they ought to be. Even worse is the concept of arbitrary ethics: might makes right. Bullies get to decide the way things ought to be because they're stronger and meaner than everybody else. That's what happens in totalitarian regimes; the people with the power decide what's right and what's wrong.
Pantheism says that there is no such thing as ultimate right and wrong because everything is part of a great undifferentiated whole where right and wrong, good and evil, are all part of the oneness of the universe. Remember "Star Wars"? The Force was both good and evil at the same time. Pantheism denies one of the basic rules of philosophy, which is that two opposite things cannot both be true at the same time. Because Pantheism denies that there are absolutes, things which are true all the time, it holds that all right and wrong is relative. Right and wrong are determined by cultures and situations. So murdering one's unborn baby might be right for one person and wrong for another.


Theism says that there is such a thing as absolute truth, and absolute right and wrong. We can know this because this information has come to us from a transcendent source outside of ourselves and outside of our world. Christian Theism says that the God who created us has also communicated certain truths to us. He communicated generally, through His creation, and He communicated specifically and understandably through His Word, the Bible. We call this revelation. Christian Theism says that absolute truth is rooted in God Himself, who is an Absolute; He is Truth. As Creator, He has the right to tell us the difference between right and wrong, and He has taken great care to communicate this to us.
That's why Steven Covey's illustration was so powerful. When he pulled out a compass, he showed that we need a transcendent source of information, something outside ourselves and which is fixed and constant, to show us the moral equivalent of "North." We are creatures created to be dependent on our Creator for the information we need to live life right. God has given us a compass in revelation.

What Is Love?

What Is Love?
One must understand whether "what is love" can be a question which can be answered? Love cannot be a question. For, if it is a question then an answer should be there. If the answer is there, where is it? This question is ancient and an answer should have been found by now! If the answer has been found, the question would have disappeared.
But the question still remains, meaning the answer has not been found. If it has not been found as yet, then what is the certainty that it will be found? Maybe the mind can never find the answer! A single answer, which will please all minds, is not possible for each mind has its own ideas of love. Hence a universal answer is an illusion.
Individual answers are there for love and for this very reason there are arguments about love for each mind will contradict the answer of another mind. This contradiction is normal for each mind lives in a different point in time. Hence "what is love" is an illusionary question, which has no answer!

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Jitin Saini