mobile

Crypto Wars 2.0: Let the Trolling Commence (and don’t trust your phone)

Albert Zenkoff
2014-11-03
Society, attacks, crypto, Cryptography, device, encryption, limitations, mobile, security, Sven Tuerpe, system

An excellent article by Sven Tuerpe argues that we pay excessive attention to the problems of encryption and insufficient – to the problems of system security. I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. Read the original article: Crypto Wars 2.0: Let the Trolling Commence (and don’t trust your phone). Security cannot be based solely on the ...

Camera and microphone attack on smartphones

Albert Zenkoff
2013-11-13
Technology, attack, attack path, camera, microphone, mobile, PIN, security, side-channel, smart phone, technology

The researches at the University of Cambridge have published a paper titled “PIN Skimmer: Inferring PINs Through The Camera and Microphone” describing a new approach to recovering PIN codes entered on a mobile on-screen keyboard. We had seen applications use the accelerometer and gyroscope before to infer the buttons pressed. This time, they use the ...

Dump anti-virus and move to secure-by-design?

Albert Zenkoff
2013-10-15
Society, antivirus, economics, externalities, infection, malware, mobile, ROI, secure by design, security investment, virus

I stumbled across an article this morning that analyses the threat to the mobile devices from malware and comes to the conclusion that it is not likely a good idea to have an anti-virus on your mobile. The premises are that only a very few of the mobile devices are currently infected, so the conclusion ...

Nokia is gone. So is mobile security.

Albert Zenkoff
2013-09-06
Society, Apple, Google, inevitability, Microsoft, mobile, Nokia, NSA, orchestrated takeover, privacy, surveillance

The recent acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft stirred up investors and Nokia fans. But, the question goes, what does it have to do with security? (Not) Surprisingly, a lot. Working in security makes people slightly paranoid over time, that is a fact. On the one hand, without being suspicious of everything and checking all strangeness ...

Ignoring security is not a good idea…

Albert Zenkoff
2013-02-24
Management, Android, embedded, evaluation, HTC, management, mobile, news, privacy, punishment, security

I see that HTC got finally whacked over the head for the lack of security in their Android smartphones. I will have to contain myself here and will leave aside the inherent issues surrounding Android, its security and model of operation that will hurt … Ok, ok, I stop now. So, HTC got dragged ...

NFC, ain’t that funny

Albert Zenkoff
2012-08-10
Technology, invention, mobile, near field communication, NFC, security as afterthought, technology, wireless

When we invented NFC (Near Field Communication) we never intended it for some of the uses that it was put to afterwards. And when we started discussing those unconventional (for us) uses, we immediately pointed out all security problems and proposed methods to protect the NFC devices from various attacks. That was… probably 2004. Do ...

mobile

Crypto Wars 2.0: Let the Trolling Commence (and don’t trust your phone)

Camera and microphone attack on smartphones