Software updates, the lifeblood of our phones, are a confusing mess — and we need to let manufacturers know there’s a problem. Those are bold words for a seemingly boring aspect of our phones, but it’s true.
We absolutely need updates regularly delivered to our phones, but we don’t need questionable features so they become “newsworthy” events, and updates need to be better presented to the people actually using the device itself.
ON THE LIST of computer security advice standbys, “update your software” ranks just below with “don’t use the password ‘password.'” But as the cybersecurity research community gets to the bottom of the malware outbreak that exploded out of Ukraine to paralyze thousands of networks around the world last week—shutting down banks, companies, transportation and electric utilities—it’s become clear that software updates themselves were the carrier of that pathogen. Cybersecurity analysts warn that it’s not the only recent incident when hackers have hijacked software’s own immune system to deliver their infections. And it won’t be the last.
Dispatches From The Front 