HP held its annual Mobile Pwn2Own competition in Tokyo, Japan from 11-12 November. The purpose of this event was for security researchers, developers and hackers to exploit various phones through some previously unknown bug and then report it to the respective handset maker so the vulnerability could be patched and fixed.
Fake apps dressed up to look like official ones but actually designed to steal user data are increasingly targeting Android phone users, according to a study by Trend Micro.
The company looked at the top 50 free apps in Google's Play Store and then searched Google's app store and others to see if fake versions existed. It found fake versions existed for 77 percent of the apps. The fake apps are often made to look like the real ones and have the same functions, but carry a dangerous extra payload.
The majority of Android smartphone and tablet users do not need to install anti-virus and other security apps to protect them, despite dire warnings from security companies selling such products, Google’s head of Android security says.
Adrian Ludwig, the lead engineer for Android security at Google, said there was "a bit of a misperception" in how the company reviewed apps for its Google Play store in comparison with other stores.
Eight out of 10 countries said that speed was the most important factor for their mobile web experience, according to a survey by Netbiscuits.
Speed was the most important factor for consumers’ mobile Web experience in eight out of 10 countries surveyed by software solutions specialist Netbiscuits. The latest data, extracted from the the company’s People’s Web Report and featuring responses from 5,000 consumers, found that the starkest differences in mobile usage were between developed and emerging markets.
The safe and efficient exchanging of corporate files, is not a new problem. Not so long ago employees used USB keys to exchange information and the challenges for the IT department was locking USB ports and ensuring staff weren’t sending personal emails outside of the company.
The number of threats on the internet are growing at an alarming rate, a report from McAfee Labs released today found. According to the company's research, the amount unique password-stealing Trojans grew 72% in the company's fourth quarter. The company also found that most phishing attacks still target financial institutions, but are spreading their wings to target other sectors like online auctions and gambling.
Among the report's other findings:
In the 1990s, client-server was king. The processing power of PCs and the increasing speed of networks led to more and more desktop applications, often plugging into backend middleware and corporate data sources. But those applications, and the PCs they ran on, were vulnerable to viruses and other attacks. When applications were poorly designed, they could leave sensitive data exposed.
In 2012, we saw increased worries about nation-state-sponsored cybercrime, mobile security, and the resurrection of an old tactic: the venerable denial-of-service attack. On the heels of my “Five Myths About The Cloud That Will Be Debunked in 2013” post, here are five security predictions for the coming year.
There has been a lot of discussion this year about the increasing influx of consumer devices being used for both professional and personal purposes. Many organizations are feeling a little overwhelmed as they try to work out appropriate security levels and device management boundaries. When you take into consideration all the platform and application updates chewing through corporate bandwidth, plus the potential for rogue applications and malware to gain illicit access to company data, there are many headaches for security managers to deal with.
FinFisher, a controversial spyware toolkit being used by oppressive regimes to track activists, can also take over smartphones, researchers announced last week.
