We know the ‘PC era’ is replaced by a ‘Smart-phone’ era, when we see almost every hand holding on to a smart-phone these days. The PC sales have persistently nose-dived, ever since the users were introduced to the smart-phones and their advanced capabilities. Smart-phones being less expensive and more convenient when compared to the clunky desktop computers, almost immediately became striking alternatives to access the Internet anywhere, anytime.
However, smart-phone’s rapidly multiplying popularity was and is a sharp contrast to its relatively lax security. This makes the smart-phone user an attractive target for cyber attackers. As per the reports, smart-phones have out sold PCs, and this expanding market of smart-phones is conveniently being exploited by the attackers. They have been merging the old techniques with new tricks to attack the smart mobile devices. Total number of attacks on mobile phones along with the sophistication involved is increasing every day, but the counter-measures to prevent these attacks are slow to catch up.
Smart-phones have enabled its users an instant access to the Internet, e-mail, etc. They are also being used for varied activities like social networking, using online banking services, e-shopping and countless mobile applications. But unlike the conventional computer security which always had firewalls and anti-virus measures regularly updated, the smart-phone security has failed to keep up with the pace. Unfortunately, a majority of smart-phone users fail to understand the consequences of such security shortcomings.
Reasons behind the typical smart-phone cyber attacks
Smart mobile devices happen to share most of the vulnerabilities of PCs. But the lack of suitable security measures and few su...
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... report the incidence of loss or to the local authorities in charge.
Change all the login credentials of corporate networks or social networking sites from the stolen device. This may require you to contact your IT department or
Some mobile service providers also offer the feature of ‘remote wiping’. This allows the smart-phone users to remotely delete all the data stored on your device.
According to security firm Kasperskey Lab, numbers of malicious software that target mobile devices have increased a lot this year. In 2013 alone, nearly 100,000 new malicious programs for mobile devices were detected, which is almost double with the number recorded last year in 2012. As of Jan 2014, the security lab has collected about 143,211 mobile malware samples. These statistics should be alarming enough for all the users to play it safe when using those smart-devices.
In this section we investigate attacks and threats to our primary devices. These attacks and threats are built off of the vulnerabilities the previous section and help to determine which security controls would be most valuable against future attacks.
Protection methods for your mobile phone or smartphone are important to help protect it from attacks. Activate encryption and remote wiping capabilities. Use the same security methods for email and text messages that use the same protocol as computers.
They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.” [6]. Since the FBI vs Apple case, regarding the complexity of the encryption Apple uses for its devices, encryption backdoors have been a hot topic. Apple argues that having one defeats the purpose of the encryption, making it easier to access and exploit data [7(a)]. Having encryption and firewalls brings peace of mind but vigilance, constant upkeep, and caution on the users end are also required for network security.
[39] Kevin Johnson and Tony DeLaGrange. SANS Institute. SANS Survey on Mobility/BYOD Security Policies and Practices 2012 [Online] Available from: http://www.sans.org/reading-room/analysts-program/SANS-survey-mobility [Accessed 07 Dec 2013]
Sabu M. Thampi, Pradeep K. Atrey, Chun I. Fan, Gregorio Martinez Perez (Eds.), Security in Computing and Communications: International Symposium, SSCC 2013, Mysore, India, August 22-24, 2013. Proceedings (Communications in Computer and Information Science) (p. 418). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
In this micro-study, I will use tools and information available to the public via internet in attempt to hack the iPhone. Currently the iPhone is only sold to subscribers of the AT&T telecommunication service provider and all applications and updates are installed using Apple’s iTunes software. Using various resources I will focus the two main issues which have put Apple and the iPhone user community into the limelight. First, the “unlocking” of the iPhone, which bypasses the iTunes activations process and allows the device to be used on any SIM (Subscriber Information Module) card cellular phone service provider other than AT&T, in this micro-study I will be using a T-Mobile SIM card. Second, I will attempt to “jailbreak” the device, which will allow me to install third-party applications through underground sources and not directly from Apple. As I attempt to hack the iPhone, I will compare drawbacks and benefits of hacking methods, ease of use, and verify Apple’s claims on affecting functionality and possible damag...
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Many people in today’s society rely on technology to help us with our daily lives and help us stay connected to family, friends, and other people. The advancements in today’s cell phone technology is very complex and made to be efficient for their owners, allowing them to surf the net and IM message people instantly. Cellphones in particular have developed very fast in the past 15 years. From my childhood, cell phones have evolved from the old school Nokia bricks that allowed texts, calls, and simple graphic games, to todays I-Phones that have higher computable capabilities than some computers. In the United States alone, there is an estimated population of around 297 million people, and 197 million people are subscribed to cell phone companies (Starr). With so many people in today’s society with so much power and opportunity in the palm of their hands, we shouldn’t forget that “With great power comes great responsibility” –Voltaire.
We Chose Mobile Security Risk because we thought it was a really nice area to expand our knowledge in and also expand the knowledge of the person who is or might be read this. This subject was chosen by all of us and decided to start the research straight away to know each other’s knowledge about the Security Risks of Mobile Phones. Another factor which made us choose this was that we all had mobile phones, which we use every day so we that it will pretty easy to find the information but to decipher that information will be hard because there are so many sources to get the information from.
The proliferation of electronic devices in the community has led to the increasing presence of evidence collected from digital devices in criminal cases. Recent research reveals that it is possible to find cell phones and the possible evidence associated with them. In more than 50% of all violent crimes,
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