Showing posts with label Mobile Phones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mobile Phones. Show all posts

Thursday, July 14, 2011

PHONES HACKING FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION

A new security hole has opened up in Apple Inc.'s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices, raising alarms about the susceptibility of some of the world's hottest tech gadgets to hacker attacks.
Flaws in the software running those devices came to light after a German security agency warned that criminals could use them to steal confidential data off the devices. Apple, the world's largest technology company by market value, said Thursday that it is working on a fix that will be distributed in an upcoming software upgrade. This has increased the sales of Aruba Access Points.
With the security hole, an attacker can get malicious software onto a device by tricking its owner into clicking an infected PDF file. Germany's Federal Office for Information Security called the flaws critical weaknesses in Apple's iOS operating system.
Internet-connected mobile devices are still subject to fewer attacks than personal computer, but they could eventually prove a juicy target for hackers because they are warehouses of confidential banking, e-mail, calendar, contact and other data.
Software vulnerabilities are discovered all the time. What makes the latest discovery alarming is that the weaknesses are already being actively exploited — albeit in a consensual way.
The latest concerns were prompted by the emergence of a new version of a program to allow Apple devices to run any software and circumvent the restrictions that Apple notoriously retains over software distributed through its online store. There are security risks of doing so, but many people find it liberating to install their own software.
Although this program is something people would seek out, the weaknesses that its authors discovered could easily be used for malice, security experts say who use Dell memory Modules.
There is an irony in the controversy: The site distributing the program offers a fix for the problem, but to get the fix, a user has to first install the program in question. So a user must defy Apple's restrictions to get the protection until Apple comes up with a fix of its own.
A prominent hacker of Apple products, said it likely took months to develop the program to break Apple's restrictions, but a criminal might need only a day or two to modify it for nefarious purposes.
Apple Inc. spokeswoman said Thursday the company is aware of this reported issue and developing a fix. She would not say when the update will be available.
One reason for gadget owners to take heart: Attacks on smartphones and other Internet gadgets are still relatively rare. One reason is PC-based attacks are still highly lucrative. Still, vulnerabilities such as the ones Apple is confronting show that consumers should take care of securing their mobile devices as they would their home computer with HP Memory Upgrades.
People need to realize that phones are computers — they're just small, portable computers that happen to have a phone tacked onto them.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Opposition Grows to FM Chip Mandate for Mobiles

PC World

 
A proposal by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to require all mobile devices sold in the U.S. to include FM radio chips is meeting growing opposition from IT and mobile trade groups.

Six trade groups, including the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and mobile organization CTIA, sent a letter to congressional representatives Monday, asking them to reject the proposal, part of long-term negotiations between the NAB and representatives of the U.S. music industry on payments to performers for songs played over the radio.

The NAB proposal, made public Aug. 6, could harm the tech and mobile industries, even though they have stayed largely on the sidelines in the debate over so-called performance royalties, the letter said.

"It is simply wrong for two entrenched industries to resolve their differences by agreeing to burden a third industry -- which has no relationship to or other interest in the performance royalty dispute -- with a costly, ill-considered, and unnecessary new mandate," said the letter, sent to leaders of the U.S. House and Senate judiciary committees. "The proposed imposition of an FM chip mandate is not necessary for resolution of the dispute between performance artists and broadcasters."

Adding an FM chip to mobile devices would raise production costs and give consumers functionality they haven't demanded, said the letter, also signed by executives at TechAmerica, the Telecommunications Industry Association, the Information Technology Industry Council, and the Rural Cellular Association. Mobile devices that contain FM chips aren't top sellers in the U.S., the letter said.

The likely outcome is that "consumers would pay more for functionality they may not desire or ever use," the letter added.

CEA and CTIA have pledged to fight the NAB FM chip proposal. Monday's letter includes new trade groups opposed to the NAB plan.

The NAB and representatives of the music industry have been sparring for years about performance royalty payments, with the NAB suggesting payments aren't justified because radio play represents free advertising for performers. But negotiations kicked into high gear after the judiciary committees in both the House and Senate approved performance rights bills last year, even though the full Congress didn't pass the legislation.

The NAB and the MusicFirst Coalition, representing the Recording Industry Association of America and other groups, have been negotiating since then, and NAB released the proposed compromise this month. In exchange of about US $100 million in payments a year to the music industry, the NAB wants an FM chip mandate.

The NAB won't accept a performance rights compromise without the FM chip mandate, officials there said.

There would be several benefits to requiring FM chips in mobile devices, NAB officials said. The public could get timely emergency updates not available on most other music services available on mobile phones, and they receive a free, new music service, an NAB official said. Radio stations could grow their ratings, and mobile carriers could share in the profits from song tagging services, the NAB said.

In addition, an FM chip in mobile phones would free up network capacity for the mobile providers, since many users might opt for radio rather than Web-based music services such as Pandora, the NAB said. The cost of an FM chip when mass produced, would likely be "pennies" per mobile device, the trade group said.

"Countries around the globe have added radio-enabled cell phones that are increasingly popular with consumers," Dennis Wharton, executive vice president for communications at NAB, said in an e-mail. "Day in and day out, local radio stations serve as a reliable lifeline in times of crisis and weather emergencies. In an increasingly mobile society, it would be unfortunate if telco gatekeepers blocked access to public safety information offered by free and local radio."

The NAB's proposal isn't about public safety, the trade groups' letter said. Instead, it's about "propping up a business which consumers are abandoning as they avail themselves of new, more consumer-friendly options," the letter said.

NAB officials note that the nationwide radio audience increased over the past year, according to Arbitron.

Monday, August 9, 2010

DoCoMo May Beat Smartphone Sales Target of 1 Million, CFO Tsubouchi Says

Bloomberg

NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest mobile-phone operator, may exceed its April target for smartphone sales of 1 million units this fiscal year, helped by demand for Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB’s Xperia.

“The smartphone sales target was seen as an ambitious one, but with Xperia’s sales hitting the 300,000 unit mark, it brought it within range,” Chief Financial Officer Kazuto Tsubouchi said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “We may also revise the overall mobile-phone sales outlook.”

The company, KDDI Corp., Japan’s second-largest carrier, and Softbank Corp. are expanding their smartphone lineups with models running Google Inc.’s Android software to bolster data traffic and offset falling voice call revenue.

Japan’s smartphone shipments will probably exceed 3 million units in the 12 months from April 1, while the overall mobile- phone market is expected to contract for a third year, according to MM Research Institute Ltd.

DoCoMo rose the most in one month after a Nikkei newspaper reported Japan Communications Inc. will soon start a service that allows Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4 to be used on the carrier’s network.

The shares added 1.8 percent to 139,500 yen, headed for the biggest advance since May 24. The stock has gained 7.6 percent this year, after declining 27 percent in 2009.

DoCoMo’s mobile-phones sales will probably rise 1 percent to 18.2 million units in the year ending March 2011, the Tokyo- based company said last month. The carrier hasn’t disclosed smartphone sales figures for last fiscal year.

Android Sales

Net income is forecast to rise 0.4 percent to 497 billion yen ($5.8 billion) in the 12 months ending March 2011, while revenue may fall 1.5 percent to 4.22 trillion yen, the company said in April. Operating profit will probably increase 0.7 percent to 840 billion yen, it said at the time.

DoCoMo started selling its third Android model last month, while Softbank, Apple Inc.’s exclusive provider of the iPhone in Japan, offers one Android phone. KDDI introduced its first handset running the software developed by Google in June.

Apple shipped 1.69 million iPhones in the year ended March 31 and has 72 percent of the country’s smartphone market, MM Research said in April. Handsets made by Taiwan’s HTC Corp., which run on Anroid and Miscrosoft Corp.’s Windows software, were second with 11 percent, the Tokyo-based researcher said.

Android, which also runs on tablet computers, may overtake Apple’s iOS, the operating system for the iPad and iPhone, in two years, El Segundo, California-based industry researcher ISuppli Corp. said yesterday. Google’s software will probably run on 75 million phones in 2012, compared with 62 million handsets for iOS, it said.

Survey: WiMax Operators Plan to Go Mobile, Want More Devices

PC World

A majority of WiMax operators plan to offer mobile services by 2012, but a lack of smartphones that support the wireless technology will make it a challenge, according to a survey by Infonetics Research.

Today, WiMax is mainly used for fixed or so-called nomadic broadband services -- where the user accesses the Internet, disconnects, moves to a new location and then connects again. However, two-thirds of the 25 service providers that Infonetics surveyed plan to use WiMax for mobile broadband by 2012, according to the survey. Also, 90 percent expect to offer Voice over IP using their WiMax-based networks by then, the survey said.

For mobile services to take off, smartphones are needed. Today, a lack of WiMax-enabled products is the biggest concern for operators with mobile aspirations, according to Infonetics' survey. However, the incentive for smartphone makers to adopt WiMax should grow as the number of potential users goes up. Sprint's launch of the HTC Evo 4G shows that there is a pent-up demand for smartphones on WiMax networks. The EVO 4G was the third most popular Android-based smartphone, among consumers in the U.S., during the second quarter, trailing the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Incredible, according to market research company NPD Group.

A lack of smartphones is the biggest, but not the only challenge, according to the survey. Operators are struggling to find a way to buildretail and distribution channels and offer low-cost services for developing countries, and the WiMAX industry is up against the clock to address these challenges, said Richard Webb, directing analyst for WiMax, microwave, and mobile devices at Infonetics.

In May, Russian operator and WiMax provider Yota announced it was planning to roll out LTE (Long-Term Evolution), and hailed expectations that the main manufacturers will launch a large numbers of LTE devices as one of the main reasons.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

McAfee to Acquire Trust Digital to Further Mobile Security

Bloomberg / Business Week

 
McAfee Tuesday said it's signed an agreement to acquire privately held Trust Digital as part of its strategy to expand into the mobile security arena, the enterprise sector in particular. The acquisition price for Trust Digital was not disclosed.

Tech M&A deals of 2010"The acquisition of Trust Digital's industry-leading enterprise mobility management solutions will extend the current McAfee security portfolio beyond the traditional endpoint, addressing the rapidly expanding mobile security market," said Dave DeWalt, president and CEO of McAfee. "Once completed, Trust Digital's industry leading enterprise mobility management solutions combined with leading McAfee antvirus, antispyware, host intrusion prevention, policy auditing and firewall technologies, will enable McAfee to address the mobile workforce by mitigating the risks associated with vulnerable or malicious mobile applications downloaded by employees."

DeWalt spoke about the planned acquisition during McAfee's Analyst Day in New York Tuesday.

Trust Digital focuses on a range of mobile operating systems, including iPhone OS, Android, Web OS, Windows Mobile and Symbian. "Together, we will enable IT to say 'yes' to the iPhone and Android," said Mark Shull, CEO of Trust Digital, on the combination of McAfee and Trust Digital. Trust Digital, said to have a few dozen customers, has just over 30 employees expected to join McAfee.

Brian Foster, senior vice president of product management at McAfee, said the strategy is to expand into enterprise management of mobile smartphones, for instance, integrating Trust Digital's encryption and management capabilities for Android with McAfee content protection and other security. Plans are also to bring Trust Digital's products under McAfee's common management console, ePolicy Orchestrator.

"It makes sense for McAfee -- or any of the large players -- so they can stay ahead of the demand," said Gartner analyst John Giraud. "The issue is protecting information on smartphones as they get more powerful, the iPhone and Android in particular. This is a fresh topic for a lot of people."

Girard said Trust Digital is small enough to be affordable for McAfee, which is making a good move in this acquisition.The acquisition is expected to be completed by June 30th.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

GSM Encryption Cracked

PC World


The unveiling of a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) encryption codebook compiled by a German security researcher and his team of collaborators lowers the bar significantly for the amount of money and technical expertise required to listen in on a GSM-based mobile phone call. More importantly, it illustrates just how old the current GSM encryption is and demonstrates why it's time for an upgrade.

Law enforcement officials and well-financed cyber criminals have been able to crack GSM encryption for sometime, but the investment was so high that it didn't pose much of a threat. This new method lowers the price of entry to the point that it is more of an issue, but still not a high risk.

Karsten Nohl announced that he and his team have compiled 2 terabytes worth of GSM encryption data. PC World's Robert McMillan explains that the results are like "cracking tables that can be used as a kind of reverse phone-book to determine the encryption key used to secure a GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) telephone conversation or text message."

GSM is the most widely-used mobile phone technology in the world--accounting for over 80 percent of the world's 4.3 billion mobile phones. The encryption algorithm that protects GSM-based calls from being intercepted and eavesdropped is more than twenty years old, though.

Time is the enemy of encryption. When a new encryption algorithm is developed and claimed to be impenetrable, or that cracking it is so impractical as to not be plausible, those claims are based on current technology . As technology improves, the mainstream consumer computers of tomorrow eventually have the processing capacity of yesterday's mainframes and suddenly the processing power required to crack the encryption becomes trivial.

As an analogy, think of encryption like a jigsaw puzzle where you have to find one specific puzzle piece. If the puzzle only has 25 pieces, it won't take you too long to accomplish. That is like a weak encryption algorithm. However, if the puzzle has 10,000 pieces it will take significantly longer.

As time goes on, though, you gather more people to join in the process and develop new strategies to sift through the pieces faster and compress the time required to look through the 10,000 pieces. That is similar to the way difficult encryption algorithms eventually become simple to crack.

There is also always the possibility of a lucky guess. The encryption cracking estimates are based on the amount of time it would take to work through every possible combination and permutation of characters to determine the encryption key. But, you could theoretically find the right key on the eighth try rather than the ten thousandth.

The fact that the A5/1 algorithm used to encrypt GSM handsets is more than two decades old and still chugging along is a testament to the strength the algorithm had at its inception. The mobile phone industry should consider itself lucky that this is only now becoming an issue.

For now, the methods revealed at the Chaos Communication Conference in Berlin still require a fairly hefty investment in technology likely to discourage any casual GSM hacking. But, the mobile phone industry as a whole needs to address the weakness of the geriatric A5/1 encryption algorithm before breaking it becomes so trivial that the encryption is completely useless.