Morning Security Brief: Android Security, Virus Outbreak, Scanner Radiation, and More

►A law enforcement software company is using a security flaw in Android smartphones to aid in forensic data gathering. Engineers from Oxygen Software discovered a hole that allows access to and physical extraction of files and user data from Android phones. “The add-on breaks the security system of any smartphone running Android OS 2.0-2.2,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports – meaning 85 percent of Android users are susceptible to being hacked. “The smartphone is particularly valuable as a source of forensically important information about the personality of its user and his or her lifestyle. For example, many mobile applications store unencrypted personal data, making it easy for us to acquire passwords, names, messages, history of search queries and even information on places that are regularly visited by the phone user,” an Oxygen spokesman was quoted as saying. This software will be a valuable tool to investigate crimes, he added.

►Body scanners used by the Transportation Security Administration may expose travelers to more than normal doses of radiation, documents obtained by The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) through FOIA revealed. The documents include e-mails, radiation test results, and radiation studies. “One document set reveals that even after TSA employees identified cancer clusters possibly linked to radiation exposure, the agency failed to issue employees dosimeters - safety devices that could assess the level of radiation exposure,” a report from EPIC states. This referred to concern about the growing number of Transportation Security Officers being diagnosed with cancer in Boston. Additionally, a John Hopkins study concluded that body scanners could exceed the “general public dose limit.”

►Biosecurity officials in Queensland, Australia are working to contain the outbreak of a deadly virus. Twenty to 30 horses have been quarantined after a horse died from the hendra virus. Officials estimate eight people may have been exposed, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports. The virus can be transmitted from horses to humans and has a high mortality rate. Queensland's acting chief health officer, Aaron Groves, says there is no reliable treatment if someone gets sick. A prevention measure may be offered with monoclonal antibodies although their effectiveness is uncertain.

►In other news, astronauts were forced to take refuge in an emergency pod on a space station because of floating space debris; and the FBI raids the home of an Iowa woman suspected to be a LulzSec hacker.