FCC gives an ultimatum to HTC

It comes out that HTC has failed to secure millions of devices and now this has to change as the Federal Trade Commission has undertaken the case. FTC has investigated the matter and has found three serious security gaps. So now HTC has to release an update in the next 30 days and to fix these security issues or it will have to deal with the punitive power of FCC. Moreover, the Taiwanese company will be subject to security reviews in the next 20 years.

The first issue is that HTC apps deal with permissions and give them to third-party apps without the consent of the owner. So those apps have the ability to explore the data in the device and to use various functions without the owner even notice.

Then comes another issue – HTC sometimes installed custom apps which could install third apps without the authorization of the owner. Then the new apps could install another apps the same way and this whole thing becomes quite dangerous as all the apps can use the personal data in the phone the way they want.

The third issue is connected to communication. HTC uses widespread methods of communications securing. Its HTC Logger is a system app that has access to all the data on the device. However, the data has to be accessed only by HTC and the carriers, which means there is a security hole and other apps may receive access to the information.

Let’s hope that HTC will manage with the security patch soon so that FCC won’t need to punish it. Please, share your opinion or experience with the issues with us!

Source: FTC