Wireless / Mobile Security — News

Mobile Apps Fail Big Time at Security, Study Says

A study from digital security company viaForensics paints a stark picture of the vulnerability of <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/237345/phone_data_caps_five_things_you_shouldnt_do_too_often.html">smartphone</a> user data. viaForensics evaluated 100 popular consumer apps running on Android and iOS, and found that 76 percent store usernames, while 10 percent store passwords as plain text. Those 10 percent included popular sites such as LinkedIn, Skype, and Hushmail.

Ilie Mitaru | 12 Aug | Read more

LulzSec, WikiLeaks, Murdoch: hacking's fourth wave

Wikileaks, hacking incidents like those attributed to LulzSec, and even the UK's News of the World voicemail scandal represent a fourth stage in the evolution of cybercrime, according to Dr Paul Nielsen, director and chief executive officer of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburg.

Stilgherrian | 08 Aug | Read more

Security rundown for week ending Aug. 5, 2011

If you'd never heard the phrase 'advanced persistent threat' before, you may have gotten an ear full of it the past week in a collection of news stories that used the APT term to describe a variety of network security problems that are causing big problems.

Ellen Messmer | 06 Aug | Read more

Mobile device security: Questions to ask for creating policy

While 69 percent of organizations have employees <a href="http://www.csoonline.com/article/681822/just-say-yes-why-banning-consumer-devices-makes-your-organization-less-secure">using personal devices to connect to their corporate network</a>, more than one-fifth, or 21 percent, currently have no policy in place to govern the use of personal mobile devices on their network. These new figures, released recently from security-products firm <a href="http://www.csoonline.com/article/684895/password-management-systems-how-to-compare-and-use-them">Courion</a>, suggest many security leaders are still ignoring the need to address mobile-device management among their employees.

Joan Goodchild | 04 Aug | Read more

Apple gets serious about iPad security, is it enough?

Soon, SAP hopes to sew up a gaping security hole for its 7,000 iPad-toting employees. The Germany-based tech giant is beta testing a product that will allow it to send PGP-encrypted confidential email to employees. In turn, employees will be able to decrypt them using a Symantec viewer iPad app.

Tom Kaneshige | 04 Aug | Read more

A Hacker Speaks: How Malware Might Blow Up Your Laptop

We depend on our computers to get work done, and so we try to safeguard them appropriately. But our trusty laptops, desktops, and tablets rely on their own internal network of sophisticated computer chips to function. These tiny chips--called microcontrollers--regulate everything from the battery in your laptop to the headlights on your car--and they aren’t always so secure.

Alex Wawro | 30 Jul | Read more

Mobile malware reality check

Malicious software is leaping from PCs to cell phones, as malware makers target the platform in hopes of making a quick buck. Examples include the infected Droid­Dream and Plankton Android apps. An infected app released into the Android Market can infect several thousand users’ phones before anyone discovers the presence of the malware. Though the extent of Android malware has been overstated, it's best to learn now how to protect yourself and your data from attacks, instead of waiting until mobile malware becomes a more serious problem.

Armando Rodriguez | 30 Jul | Read more