Data security on Android

Thu, 13 Mar 2014 13:13:23 +0000

The biggest data generator is in our pockets - so securing it to protect privacy is the very first step to do before starting to use a device. Steps to secure Android:

Remove all non-needed apps
- Acquire root permissions on your phone (phone specific, use XDA forum)
- Use Titanium Backup
  - Backup all your data
  - Freeze or uninstall all unnecessary programs
    - Remove all which is vendor specific (Samsung, Sony, MIUI fork, …)
    - Remove all Google packages
- Disable all unused or privacy wise dangerous services with Disable Services
  - If some vital functions are not working you can re-enable it
  - Regularly, apps with disabled services still work (e.g. disabling LocationAccess for Facebook app)

Set up Owncloud for personal data management and Android sync

Thu, 13 Mar 2014 13:09:25 +0000

If privacy is a concern and you’d be feeling better to host your own CalDAV and CardDAV (calendar and contact) data but still would like to access it from your smartphone and web, Owncloud is a straightforward open-source tool to use. Remark: hosting your email would only be a possibility if high availability server hardware and internet connection is available for use.

Register a cheap domain with Namecheap and configure DynamicDNS
Add this script to CRON to regularly update Namecheap on your IP address
- Do this on the Internet interface of your host or OpenWRT router
- Use this script

urllib2.urlopen("http://dynamicdns.park-your-domain.com/update?host=%s&domain=%s&password=%s" % ("subdomain", "yourdomain.com", "hash.by.namecheap..82d9365e23be655"))

Set it in crontab

crontab -e

#Add this to run IP update script every 0:05

        5 0 * * * /path/to/script

Use an Ubuntu Server (14.04 64)

#Install Owncloud from Repository
cd ~
wget http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/isv:ownCloud:community/xUbuntu_14.04/Release.key
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/isv:/ownCloud:/community/xUbuntu_14.04/ /' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/owncloud.list"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install owncloud
sudo apt-get install mysql-server
#Define MySQL password

#Create MySQL table
sudo mysql -u root -p #DefinedPwHere
	CREATE DATABASE owncloud;
	GRANT ALL ON owncloud.* to 'owncloud'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'database_password';
	exit

#Set file permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/owncloud
find /var/www/owncloud -type d -exec chmod 750 {} ;
find /var/www/owncloud -type f -exec chmod 640 {} ;

#Enable Apache SSL
sudo a2enmod ssl
sudo a2ensite default-ssl
sudo service apache2 reload
sudo a2enmod rewrite

#Generate SSL certs
sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key -out /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt

#Modify Apache configuration
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl

#Add this to the file being edited with Nano
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    <VirtualHost _default_:443>
        ServerName YourServerName
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        DocumentRoot /var/www
        <Directory />
            Options FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride None
        </Directory>
        <Directory /var/www/>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride None
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
        </Directory>
        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        LogLevel warn
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/ssl_access.log combined
        SSLEngine on
        SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt
        SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key
        <FilesMatch ".(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
            SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
        </FilesMatch>
        <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin>
            SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
        </Directory>
        <Directory /var/www/owncloud>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
            # add any possibly required additional directives here
            # e.g. the Satisfy directive (see below for details):
            Satisfy Any
        </Directory>
    </VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

sudo service apache2 restart

Access your Owncloud at http://host/owncloud
- Follow install steps, use MySQL, owncloud as database and use your database password as root or owncloud user
Use your Owncloud
Configure your router to forward requests of yourdomain:443 to yourowncloudhost:443 to access Owncloud from the Internet
Configure mobile device sync
- Use DAVdroid for your Android phone
  - CalDAV: https://yourowncloudhost/remote.php/caldav/
  - CardDAV: https://yourowncloudhost/remote.php/carddav/
- As most likely a self-signed certificate is used, set it up with CADroid accessible from FDroid market

Android on Dataprd.Com

Data security on Android

Set up Owncloud for personal data management and Android sync