WireLurker is attacking iOS and Macs in China & researches say it could be the future of attacks for the platform. Google fires back at Dropbox & Microsoft by owning your “Open With” menu.

Plus what Office going free means for open source projects like LibreOffice.

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Google Drive now lets you open files in compatible Mac & PC apps w/ new Chrome extension | 9to5Google

Google announced today that it’s releasing a new Chrome extension called Application Launcher for Drive that allows users to open files directly from its Google Drive service in compatible apps on a Mac or PC. The extension adds an “Open With” option that will let users launch files in apps like, for example, Mac OS X’s Preview app or third-party editing apps like those from Adobe and Microsoft.

Users can enable the feature by installing the new Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store and making sure files are synced using the latest version of the Drive app for Mac or PC. You’ll then be able to see compatible apps by right-clicking files and selecting “Open With” in Drive (as pictured above).

Researchers Discover New ‘WireLurker’ Malware Affecting Macs and iOS Devices in China – Mac Rumors

Researchers from Palo Alto Networks (via The New York Times) have published a research paper on WireLurker, a malware new family that’s been infecting both Mac OS and iOS systems over the course of the past six months. The researchers say that WireLurker, which is targeting users in China, “heralds a new era in malware attacking Apple’s desktop and mobile platforms.”

The WireLurker malware is the “biggest in scale” in the trojanized malware family, and it is able to attack iOS devices through OS X using USB. It’s said to be able to infect iOS applications similar to a traditional virus, and it is the first malware capable of installing third-party applications on non-jailbroken iOS devices “through enterprise provisioning.”

Thus far, WireLurker has been used in 467 OS X apps in the Maiyadi App Store, which is a third-party Mac app store in China. The apps have been downloaded 356,104 times, infecting hundreds of thousands of users.

According to the researchers, WireLurker looks for iOS devices connected via USB to an infected Mac, installing malicious third-party applications onto the device even without a jailbreak.

Once installed, WireLurker can collect information from iOS devices like contacts and iMessages, and it’s able to request updates from attackers. It’s said to be under “active development” with an unclear “ultimate goal.”

Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government | Technology | The Guardian

Former NSA general counsel Stewart Baker said on Tuesday.

Speaking at Web Summit in Dublin, Baker claimed that moves by Google and Apple and others to encrypt user data was more hostile to western intelligence gathering than to surveillance by China or Russia.

“The state department has funded some of these tools, such as Tor, which has been used in Arab Spring revolutions or to get past the Chinese firewall, but these crypto wars are mainly being fought between the American government and American companies,” he said, in conversation with Guardian special projects editor James Ball.

Baker said encrypting user data had been a bad business model for Blackberry, which has had to dramatically downsize its business and refocus on business customers. “Blackberry pioneered the same business model that Google and Apple are doing now – that has not ended well for Blackberry,” said Baker.

OnePlus One sales numbers: 500,000 smartphones sold to date, stretch goal of 1 million by year’s end | 9to5Google

OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei confirmed to Forbes that OnePlus One smartphone sales have eclipsed the 500,000 mark to date, adding that the Chinese company has a lofty goal of selling 1 million units by the end of the year.

Forbes claims that OnePlus has achieved half a million sales of its flagship One device, which has been available on an invite-only basis since April, with an advertising budget of just $300. That small figure was allocated towards OnePlus experimenting with Facebook advertising.

Models go for $299 and $349.

OnePlus has been able to sell its flagship One smartphone for so cheap because it is only barely profiting off each handset sold. “We’re making a single-figure dollar amount on each phone,” Pei told Forbes. “That’s not the way we’re going to make money in the future, it’s just to keep the operation going.”

Microsoft Changes Tack, Making Office Suite Free on Mobile

“We’d like to dramatically increase the number of people trying Office,” John Case, corporate vice president of Office marketing at Microsoft, said about the new offering. “This is about widening the funnel.”

Microsoft says it has more than 7 million consumers subscribing to Office 365. It says there have been more than 40 million downloads of its Office apps for the iPad. In its most recent quarter, which ended Sept. 30, Microsoft said its consumer Office revenue grew 7 percent.

By making an unabridged version of Office available for free on mobile, Microsoft is betting it can get even more people to start using the software, without stealing sales from the PC and Mac versions of the product, where it still makes truckloads of money.