Manufacturing

Vulnerable Mobile Software Management Tool Reaches Into IoT

You could be forgiven for never having heard of Red Bend Software. The company is small – just 250 employees- and privately held. Red Bend’s headquarters is a suite of offices in a nondescript office park in Waltham, Massachusetts, just off Route 128 – America’s “Silicon Highway.” But the company’s small profile belies a big footprint in the world of mobile devices. Since 2005, more than 2 billion devices running the company’s mobile management software have been sold worldwide. Today, the Red Bend is believed to control between 70 and 90 percent of the market for mobile software management (MSM) technology, which carriers use to service mobile devices. The software enables mobile carriers to do critical tasks, including firmware-over-the-air (FOTA) software updates, mobile device configuration and other on-device changes.  Red Bend counts many of the world’s leading companies in the mobile, enterprise and manufacturing sectors as clients, including Intel, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sharp, LG, Sony, Huawei, China Mobile and Lenovo. For the most part, Red […]

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ARM Eyes Role as Supplier to the Internet of Things

Writing for Fortune this week, Katherine Noyes has an interesting piece that looks at how ARM is looking to parlay its success in the mobile phone market into a dominant role as a supplier for the Internet of Things (IoT). “There’s a real opportunity here,” Noyes quotes Ian Ferguson, ARM’s vice president of segment marketing saying. AMD licenses designs to silicon makers like Qualcomm and AMD. Already, some of those designs are showing up in IoT products like fitness bands. That could expand – and mobile phones are the management interface for many IoT products, which also stokes ARM’s business. But the company thinks the real opportunity lies in commercial technology for verticals like infrastructure (smart cities), manufacturing and oil and gas exploration. “You’ve got highly valued assets, so preventative mechanical services can help improve efficiency by detecting problems before they break down,” Ferguson said. ARM acquired Sensinode Oy in August, 2013. Sensinode pioneered software and […]

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Chinese Firm Claims To Hack Tesla Model S To Win Security Contest – chicagotribune.com

A mainland China security firm, Qihoo 360 Technology Co., claims it has found a way to hack into systems that control Tesla’s Model S sedan, controlling features like the door locks, car horn and sunroof even while the vehicle was being operated, according to a report by Bloomberg News. The hack was in response to a contest associated with the SysCan security conference in Beijing. As reported by The Security Ledger, that contest offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could hack the Model S. Bloomberg reporter Ma Jie cited this post on the company’s Sina Weibo account as proof of the compromise. Tranlated (via Google), the post reads: “Our safety performance Tesla recently conducted a series of tests and found that the certificate can be used to unlock the remote control of the vehicle, whistle, flash and so on. And can open the sunroof while driving the vehicle. Tesla owners […]

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Is It Time For Customs To Inspect Software? | Veracode Blog

If you want to import beef, eggs or chicken into the U.S., you need to get your cargo past inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Not so hardware and software imported into the U.S. and sold to domestic corporations. But a spate of stories about products shipping with malicious software raises the question: is it time for random audits to expose compromised supply chains? Concerns about ‘certified, pre-pwned’ hardware and software are nothing new. In fact, they’ve permeated the board rooms of technology and defense firms, as well as the halls of power in Washington, D.C. for years. The U.S. Congress conducted a high profile investigation of Chinese networking equipment maker ZTE in 2012 with the sole purpose of exploring links between the company and The People’s Liberation Army, and (unfounded) allegations that products sold by the companies were pre-loaded with spyware. Of course, now we know that such […]

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Intel Promotes ‘Trustlets’ To Secure Embedded Devices

The integrity of data stored on- and transmitted between Internet-connected embedded devices is one of the biggest technical hurdles standing in the way of widespread adoption of Internet of Things technology. For one thing: embedded devices like wearable technology and “smart” infrastructure are often deployed on simple, inexpensive and resource constrained hardware. Unlike laptops or even smart phones, these are purpose-built devices that, by design, run for long periods in remote deployments, with extremely constrained features and low power consumption that is the result of limited processing power and memory. [Read Security Ledger’s coverage of connected vehicles.] Now Intel is promoting a platform that it says can bridge the gap and provide robust security features even for resource-constrained Internet of Things devices like wearables and connected vehicles. Back in April, the Intel Labs  unveiled the results of joint research with Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany. The researchers have developed a platform, dubbed TrustLite […]

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