Security News
Exploiting a vulnerability in the mobile communication standard LTE, researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum can impersonate mobile phone users. David Rupprecht and Dr. Katharina Kohls from the Chair of System Security developed attacks to exploit security gaps in the mobile phone standard LTE. "An attacker can book services, for example stream shows, but the owner of the attacked phone would have to pay for them," illustrates Professor Thorsten Holz from Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security, who discovered the vulnerability together with David Rupprecht, Dr. Katharina Kohls and Professor Christina Pöpper.
Cybercriminals targeted mobile banking users by sending malicious SMS messages to their smartphones as part of a phishing campaign to steal account holders' information, including usernames and passwords, according to the cybersecurity firm Lookout. More than 3,900 mobile banking app users of several Canadian and American banks fell victim to the SMS phishing attacks, which started in June 2019 and apparently recently ended, researchers at Lookout say in their new report.
iProov, a leading provider of biometric authentication technology, announces that its Verifier product is now available to organisations needing to verify customer identities in a host of new physical environments, including kiosks. iProov has revolutionised the process of remote identity authentication, enabling banks and governments to authenticate customers and citizens via mobile or online app for access to secure services.
A mobile phishing campaign that targeted customers of more than a dozen North American banks, including Chase, Royal Bank of Canada and TD Bank, managed to hook nearly 4,000 victims. The attacks used an automated SMS tool to blast bogus security text messages to mobile phone users between June and last month.
Keysight Technologies, a leading technology company that helps enterprises, service providers and governments accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, announced an extended collaboration with Samsung Electronics' LSI Business, a global leader in semiconductor components and 5G technology, to validate dynamic spectrum sharing technology used in the smartphone maker's new 5G modem. Samsung has used Keysight's 5G network emulation solutions to accelerate the development of its radio frequency solution, Exynos RF 5510, as well as its newest 5G modem, Exynos Modem 5123, which supports DSS technology.
Mathew Marulla began leasing a Ford Focus electric vehicle in 2013, but turned the car back in to Ford at the end of his lease in 2016. Asked to comment on Marulla's experience, a spokesperson for Ford said all Ford dealerships are supposed to perform a "Master reset" as part of their used car checklist prior to the resale of a vehicle.
Mobile data roaming traffic generated by consumer and IoT devices reached 737 Petabytes in 2019, according to Kaleido Intelligence. Driven by the significant increase in roaming data traffic across key regions including Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Kaleido predicts that consumer inbound wholesale roaming revenues will reach $16 billion in 2024, with IoT adding a further $5.7 billion.
Criminals sometimes damage their mobile phones in an attempt to destroy data. Manufacturers use those taps to test their circuit boards, but by soldering wires onto them, forensic investigators can extract data from the chips.
The chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - which oversees the FCC - Frank Pallone issued a statement: "Following our longstanding calls to take action, the FCC finally informed the Committee today that one or more wireless carriers apparently violated federal privacy protections by turning a blind eye to the widespread disclosure of consumers' real-time location data. This is certainly a step in the right direction, but I'll be watching to make sure the FCC doesn't just let these lawbreakers off the hook with a slap on the wrist." For her part, Commissioner Rosenworcel put out a statement saying: "For more than a year, the FCC was silent after news reports alerted us that for just a few hundred dollars, shady middlemen could sell your location within a few hundred meters based on your wireless phone data."
93 percent of total mobile transactions in 20 countries were blocked as fraudulent in 2019 according to a report on the state of malware and mobile ad fraud released by Upstream. In these five cases alone, 353 million suspicious mobile transactions were detected and blocked preventing $430 million in fraudulent charges.