Lookout

That’s right. What was once known as ‘Flexilis’ will now become ‘Lookout.’ So without further ado, let’s get down to it and try to answer all the big questions.

1. Why the name change?

There were quite a few reasons for this. Doesn’t it just sound cooler? In all seriousness, while we have been Flexilis for quite a long time, and it’s been such a part of our roots, at the end of the day we were noticing more and more mistypes of search queries of people looking for us, and even in conversations, we all heard “Flexi-wha?” more times than we can count on our fingers and toes. A lot of you, our Flexili—er, Lookout, fans and evangelists ran into this same issue as well when talking about the product to friends and family. We have an amazing community of beta testers and fans out there now in over 200 countries. In fact, one of the main reasons we have made the decision to change to Lookout is our tremendous growth. It only makes sense to position the company to expose our vision and products to millions more in 2010 and beyond. We’re really excited & hope this change will better enable everyone share Lookout with friends and family, and avoid those “flexi-wha?” questions.

2. What is “Lookout” and why?

We went through an extensive search for the right name, and at the end of the day, Lookout is what we fell in love with. Our vision from day one has been to protect our users and their devices. In our exploration we realized that fundamentally “Lookout” is what we do – we lookout for you. Not only does Lookout encompass our mission and vision, but it is also a name that you can tell your friends about, with no misconceptions of the spelling. Even if you hear the name in casual conversation, it’s easy to remember, even hours later when you want to look it up. With the new name comes a new logo as well, and we think this one’s a great fit.

3. So, what’s next?

Soon the magic will begin (and yes this is just the beginning, as we have other significant announcements right around the corner). You’ll soon see the Flexilis website and blog transition over to Lookout, and you’ll then be able to access your account and data at the all new http://www.mylookout.com (don’t worry, you’ll still be able to go to flexilis.com at that time, though you’ll be redirected to myLookout). Support requests will still be answered at the old support email address, but all new requests should be directed to support@mylookout.com. You’ll soon start seeing the new name and logo everywhere almost immediately at that time, and it should be very seamless. All new and existing users will still be able to access their accounts like normal, and there should be no downtime at all.

We’re definitely excited about this, but as always, would love to hear what you think. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, send us an email to support@mylookout.com, or Tweet us on Twitter. Please be sure to share the news with everyone you know, and if you spot any errors, things we miss, etc, let us know!

-Chris,
Community Director,
Lookout Mobile Security

If you own an iPhone, this one’s for you.

Recently a Dutch hacker took control of iPhones in the Netherlands, forcing them to display the screen you see at the right of this post, notifying users that he would remove the screen and fix the problem, for a small ransom of 5 Euro. So how did he do it?

You’ve possibly heard the terms ‘jailbreak’, ‘jailbroken’ and more when referring to the iPhone before. For those who are unfamiliar, ‘Jailbreak’ refers to unlocking key parts of the phone that prevent you from making modifications to the iPhone’s operating system, features, files, or installing software not approved by Apple. The allure of doing so is often for adding in 3rd party software not supported or approved by apple, customizing your phone’s look, themes, actions, and more. But often times jailbreaking comes with risk, unknown to the non-security conscious user. Most jailbroken phones have various forms of remote access for moving or uploading files to the phone, etc. The problem lies in the fact that the phone’s ‘root’ account (think of it like your ‘Administrator’ account on your Windows PC or Mac) is enabled and has a default password that is the same across all jailbroken devices. If an attacker is to gain access to this account, they have full control of your device, to upload what they want, modify the phone how they want and more. The hacker scanned dutch networks and found devices with this default account enabled, & took control of this very hole, which enabled him to command these devices how he chose.

While this hacker only wanted a donation to fix the hole and nothing more (and has now since stopped asking for money and started volunteering to help users fix the issue) it could have been worse.  If you have or own a jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch, SSH into your device, and use the ‘passwd’ command to change your root password right away.

If you’re unsure how to do this, the easiest way is as follows:

1. Download ‘Mobile Terminal’ in the Cydia app on your Jailbroken device.

2. Open the Terminal app, and type in “su root” and hit enter, & provide the root password. The default password as provided by apple is “alpine”.

3. Type in “passwd” and hit enter, and then type in your new password twice (if you cant see the letters you’re typing in on the screen, that’s because they are hidden for security).

4. You should also change the password for the “mobile” (default) user as well. Type in “passwd mobile” and hit enter, and type in a new password twice, as you did above.

5. Close mobile terminal, and you should be all set!

Questions? Comments? leave em here, or feel free to send us a reply to @flexilis on Twitter, or by dropping us a line by email, at support.at.flexilis.com