Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

Amazon announced that Kindles will receive security updates for at least 4 years after a model is sold on the Amazon website. I realize that there has been malware targeting Kindles. However, if I only buy ebooks from reputable sources like a publishers website or Amazon, and I only load them by emailing them to my kindle or downloading from Amazon, how could my Kindle be compromised? I plan on using my Voyage forever, or until a kindle with page turn buttons on both sides becomes available again.

Any techies in the group that can answer this?

TomK2 wrote: "Amazon announced that Kindles will receive security updates for at least 4 years after a model is sold on the Amazon website. I realize that there has been malware targeting Kindles. However, if I ..."

Not me, but good question. I also download and transfer via USB.

It never even occurred to me that people could even mess with Kindles. And why? So they can steal my books?

There are several ways Kindles can be compromised (run any apps?) and odds are your Amazon account is linked to the Kindle. Imagine what you could happen if your account credentials are compromised.

The security risk was found by an independent group of good guys, before any miscreants took action. Malware was embedded in an ebook that surrendered your kindle control when you opened the malware encoded ebook. Your kindle account, and by extension your amazon account were at risk. That particular weakness was fixed by updates. Which got me thinking, if I only acquired books from publishers, libraries, and Amazon, wouldn't the risk be eliminated?

The anti-hackers seemed to think the weakness would most likely be exploited by targeted attack - an ebook in a language the book was not officially published in yet could be infected, and target that particular language's country or culture since they did not have a legitimate source for the ebook yet. Of course, disrupting Amazon in any way could also be the target itself, in any language.

TomK2 wrote: "Amazon announced that Kindles will receive security updates for at least 4 years after a model is sold on the Amazon website."

Ah. That's planned obsolescence for you.

I imagine they will continue to work fine if all your ebook sources are legit. But they will still try to sell you the new model ;)