Trend Micro’s Security Intelligence Blog has an interesting post today that looks at the changing demands of networked environments populated by smart “stuff.” Their conclusion: homes and businesses might find increasing need for someone to manage smart devices. “Managing a household full of smart devices calls for the skills of both a multi-user IT administrator and a handyman. Let’s call this role the Administrator of Things (AoT).” As in the early days of business networks, this role is currently ill-defined, Trend notes, with “ordinary users” taking on AoT tasks despite “scant evidence that they are ready for it.” Trend’s Geoff Grindrod doesn’t take a strong position on what the implications of all this complexity. (“This is something that should be looked into,” the report says.) However, he does anticipate friction. “How well people can actually perform (the job of AoT) has a huge impact on their daily lives, which includes the security of their household,” […]
Tag: Mobile Threats
Report: Android Shield Adds Invisible Encryption To Mobile Apps
Wired reports on a team from Georgia Tech that has designed software that acts as an overlay on Android smartphones’ communication applications, encrypting communications to and from those apps, while mimicking their user interface. The researchers describe the technology as a “transparent window” over apps that prevents unencrypted messages from leaving the user’s device. “The window acts as a proxy between the user and the app. But the beauty of it is that users feel like they’re interacting with the original app without much, if any, change,” says Wenke Lee, the Georgia Tech professor who led the developers. “Our goal is to make security that’s as easy as air. You just breathe and don’t even think about it.” The researchers call their prototype Mimesis Aegis, or M-Aegis, Latin for “mimicry shield.” They plan to present their research at the Usenix Security conference this week. Read more via Wired: This Android Shield Could […]
McAfee sideshow eclipses Defcon’s real security breakthroughs | Security – InfoWorld
The onetime technology wunderkind, who left a job working for Lockheed to turn his curiosity about computer viruses into a thriving, global corporation showed up at two Las Vegas hacker cons last week: B-Sides Las Vegas and DEFCON. He offered some off-the-cuff rebukes to firms like Google. He also rambled long and hard about the dark forces that pursue him: the U.S. government, the government of Belize, Central American drug cartels and script kiddies desperate for his (virtual) scalp. Everywhere he goes, people take his picture. Who are they working for? The phones and computers he buys are bugged. His movements are being tracked. Those in attendance were admonished to beware of government snooping — especially via mobile applications. “Without privacy there is no freedom,” McAfee intoned. Listening to McAfee rant, it’s easy to forget there were plenty of folks walking the halls of Defcon, Black Hat, and B-Sides […]
Popular Web Sites Still Getting Gamed in SEO Attacks
In this post, Security Ledger contributor Or Katz of Akamai provides details of how malicious actors are abusing redirect vulnerabilities in popular web sites to boost the reputation of malicious sites they control. One recent attack involved the compromise of some 4,000 vulnerable web applications for the purpose of pumping up the search engine ranking of more than 10,000 malicious web sites, Katz reveals.
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 […]
