News of the week: collectors want access to Russian phones, new Linux kernel Linux 5.1, Samsung data leak

In this digest read:

• collectors are planning to get access to the national base of Russian phones;
• Mozilla decided to replace Firefox for Android;
• Linus Torvalds introduced the Linux 5.1 kernel;
• The Ministry of Communications does not support the pre-installation of Russian applications on smartphones;
• Samsung has leaked the source code and account development accounts.

Collectors are requesting access to the debtors' phones

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The National Association of Collection Agencies (SRO NAPCA) sent an appeal to the State Duma with a request to provide collectors with the telephone numbers of debtors specified in the Unified Identification and Authentication System (ESIA). According to collectors, the provision of access will allow to solve the problem of calls to citizens whose numbers are indicated in the questionnaires erroneously.

Experts disagree with this opinion, stating that the problem of calling third parties exists, but here is the way to solve it, which are offered by collectors, carry additional risks. In particular, this will entail a weakening of the protection of personal data.

Mozilla will replace Firefox for Android

In January of this year, the layout of Fenix, the new Mozilla mobile browser, appeared on GitHub. Now the developers have provided access to its development build . As it turned out, Fennec, the current Firefox for Android, is not very popular among users, so Mozilla decided not to waste efforts on further work with it.

The new browser is primarily created for the younger generation. On GitHub, it’s stated that "Fenix ​​is ​​not an Android browser for your parents."

Linux kernel release 5.1

The Linux community spent two months working on the Linux 5.1 kernel. The new version has received a large number of new features and additions . Among the updates is to highlight the new interface for asynchronous input / output io_uring, support for very large FS scalable monitoring via fanotify, solution to the problem of 2038, etc.

Torvalds said that the 5.1 kernel received more than 13 thousand commits. The final list of changes is extensive.

The Ministry of Communications does not support the pre-installation of Russian applications on smartphones

Minkomsyzi gave a negative assessment of the idea of ​​the FAS on the mandatory installation of Russian applications on mobile devices. Now the final decision has not yet been made, but the idea is contradictory.

In particular, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media fears that Apple will not release a special version of iOS for the Russian market, since it does not represent a special importance for the company. But many officials use the corporation’s phones, including Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The main message of the FAS proposal is the protection of the domestic manufacturer. The representative of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media Yevgeny Novikov does not agree with this: “The market for applications for user equipment is already competitive, so such methods are unlikely to be effective here.” Plus, if artificially restricting competition, this leads to the risk of redistribution of the market in favor of large Russian companies.

Closed data leaked from Samsung repository for developers

The other day it became known that important data had flowed from the Samsung repository , including the source code of several applications, secret keys to internal projects, logins and passwords to developer accounts. Several projects in the repository were public, they contained data containing access to developer accounts and closed projects.

The problem was discovered by Mossab Hussein, a security specialist from Dubai-based SpiderSilk. Due to the vulnerability, he was able to gain access to 135 projects, a Samsung account on Amazon Web Services, logs and analytical data from several services, such as SmartThings and Bixby.