Tag: mobile
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VB2018 paper: Little Brother is watching – we know all your secrets!
The use of mobile spyware to spy on (ex-)partners is an underreported problem, despite the prevalence of such apps and their use in cases of domestic violence. At VB2017 in Madrid, security journalist Joseph Cox spoke about this problem. Closely linked to these apps are ‘mutual-awareness tracking apps’, which allow people to track the location…
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VB2018 paper: Little Brother is watching – we know all your secrets!
The use of mobile spyware to spy on (ex-)partners is an underreported problem, despite the prevalence of such apps and their use in cases of domestic violence. At VB2017 in Madrid, security journalist Joseph Cox spoke about this problem. Closely linked to these apps are ‘mutual-awareness tracking apps’, which allow people to track the location…
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Vulnerabilities play only a tiny role in the security risks that come with mobile phones
Last week saw yet another successful edition of Mobile Pwn2Own , the contest in which participants are challenged to attack fully patched mobile devices using previously unknown vulnerabilities. Contests like these, and their desktop equivalents, serve two purposes: device manufacturers have vulnerabilities responsibly disclosed to them, while offensive security researchers are able to show off…
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Vulnerabilities play only a tiny role in the security risks that come with mobile phones
Last week saw yet another successful edition of Mobile Pwn2Own , the contest in which participants are challenged to attack fully patched mobile devices using previously unknown vulnerabilities. Contests like these, and their desktop equivalents, serve two purposes: device manufacturers have vulnerabilities responsibly disclosed to them, while offensive security researchers are able to show off…
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VB2016 preview: Mobile Applications: a Backdoor into Internet of Things?
The recent discovery of a one-million-device IoT botnet used for DDoS attacks should be ample proof that concerns over the security of the Internet of Things are not merely theoretical. Unfortunately, the use of specific components and the wide variety among them makes reverse engineering such devices rather complicated. But it doesn’t need to be,…
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VB2016 preview: Mobile Applications: a Backdoor into Internet of Things?
The recent discovery of a one-million-device IoT botnet used for DDoS attacks should be ample proof that concerns over the security of the Internet of Things are not merely theoretical. Unfortunately, the use of specific components and the wide variety among them makes reverse engineering such devices rather complicated. But it doesn’t need to be,…
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VB2015 paper: Mobile Banking Fraud via SMS in North America: Who’s Doing it and How
While SMS has been declared dead many times, the service remains frequently used – and abused. In a paper presented at VB2015 in Prague, Adaptive Mobile researcher Cathal Mc Daid looked at fraudulent SMS campaigns, in particular those targeting banking users in North America. He showed how these campaigns tend to target specific banks and…
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Paper: a timeline of mobile botnets
Ruchna Nigam provides an overview of more than 60 mobile malware families. The rise of mobile malware is still a relatively recent thing, with the first actual mobile botnets not appearing until the beginning of this decade. However, since then things have changed quickly, and today there are more than one million known mobile malware…
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‘Mobile Thursday’ at the VB conference
Record number of presentations dedicated to threats affecting smartphones. The significant increase in mobile threats is reflected in the VB2013 programme, which includes seven presentations on mobile malware. Security experts have always been fascinated by mobile security, a subject which has been covered at many previous VB conferences. As far back as 2002, T-Mobile ‘s…
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AV Test releases Android test data
30 mobile solutions tested for malware protection and speed hit. Independent test organization AV-Test has released its latest report, covering the Andriod platform. This major test of mobile solutions included 30 contenders, with offerings of varying complexity. As well as rating malware detection, false alarms and performance, extra points were given for including additional security…