Which Telecoms Store Your Data the Longest? Secret Memo Tells All

wired

The nation’s major mobile-phone providers are keeping a treasure trove of sensitive data on their customers, according to newly-released Justice Department internal memo that for the first time reveals the data retention policies of America’s largest telecoms.

The single-page Department of Justice document, “Retention Periods of Major Cellular Service Providers,” (.pdf) is a guide for law enforcement agencies looking to get information — like customer IP addresses, call logs, text messages and web surfing habits – out of U.S. telecom companies, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.

The document, marked “Law Enforcement Use Only” and dated August 2010, illustrates there are some significant differences in how long carriers retain your data.

Verizon, for example, keeps a list of everyone you’ve exchanged text messages with for the past year, according to the document. But T-Mobile stores the same data up to five years. It’s 18 months for Sprint, and seven years for AT&T.

That makes Verizon appear to have the most privacy-friendly policy. Except that Verizon is alone in retaining the actual contents of text messages. It allegedly stores the messages for five days, while T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint don’t store them at all.

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Hacker’s App Automates Over-The-Shoulder iPad Spying

forbes.com
Shoulder surfing, the simple act of leering over a computer users’ shoulder to spy on passwords and other sensitive info, may not seem like the most advanced hacker trick. But when it comes to shoulder surfing Apple’s iPad, Haroon Meer has it down to a science.

Earlier this week, the South African security researcher announced that he’d built shoulderPad, an app for Mac OS, jailbroken iPhones and iPads that’s designed to auto-snoop on iPad users’ passwords by watching their touchscreen keyboards. Simply pretend to be fiddling with your phone or tablet a few meters away from an iPad user while he or she enters their PIN or password, and shoulderPad can uses your device’s camera to read and interpret the target’s keystrokes.

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You Can Stop iPhones from Spying on You, But Not Androids

theatlanticwire.com

With a new software update, Apple resolved its iPhone tracking scandal that emerged after two data scientists discovered the phones record users' every move for a year. Customers of Google's Android phones aren't so lucky. Apple's new iOS update 4.3.3. makes the iPhone stop backing up location data on your computer and deletes the data when Location Services is turned off. The company says the location information is not transmitted to Apple, however, the information still remains on your phone if you don't disable Location Services. The fix, available for download now, comes just one week after Apple initially addressed the issue.

If you've got an Android phone, however, good luck. As Engadget's former managing editor Nilay Patel tweets, "It took Apple just a week to deploy this update to all iPhone users, while Android makers are still shipping 2.2." Patael's quote speaks to Android's nagging fragmentation problem in which updates come slowly because software is not compatible with all the different Android models produced by various handset makers. TechCrunch's MG Siegler highlights the problem:

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Apple Doesn't Spy, Vows to Fix Spying

thestreet.com
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Apple(AAPL_) denied, confessed to and then said it will change its iPhone tracking practices that have created a swirl of outcry about potential privacy invasion.

In classic Apple fashion, the company issued a press release Wednesday consisting of 10 questions the company asked itself. In addition to the 10 answers, the company said it is preparing a software update that changes the way it collects data about iPhone locations.

First came the denial.

"Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so," said the release.

Next came the explanation.

The short version: Apparently Apple doesn't track iPhones -- it collects the data from WiFi and cell tower antennas that track iPhones.

The long version: In order to find your location faster, Apple said it uses a database of antennas in a given area. This ready cache of antenna info can quickly pinpoint you on a map -- that's a lot faster than if you had to wait only for a GPS satellite report.

While Apple says this offers fast, accurate and secure location services, "users are confused" because the company has "not provided enough education about these issues to date."

So it's not your fault for being confused and angered about location snooping. It's Apple's -- among others' -- fault for not explaining how awesome the system is.

Apple also blamed bugs in the system.

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Snooping: It's not a crime, it's a feature

computerworld.com

Cellphone users say they want more privacy, and app makers are listening.

No, they're not listening to user requests. They're literally listening to the sounds in your office, kitchen, living room and bedroom.

A new class of smartphone app has emerged that uses the microphone built into your phone as a covert listening device -- a "bug," in common parlance.

But according to app makers, it's not a bug. It's a feature!

The apps use ambient sounds to figure out what you're paying attention to. It's the next best thing to reading your mind.

Your phone is listening

The issue was brought to the world's attention recently on a podcast called This Week in Tech. Host Leo Laporte and his panel shocked listeners by unmasking three popular apps that activate your phone's microphone to collect sound patterns from inside your home, meeting, office or wherever you are.

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Square or Dare? You be the judge...

sq-skim.com

Today is a wake-up call to consumers and the payments industry. Last year, a start-up named Square introduced a credit card reader for smartphones with the goal of making it very easy for anyone to accept credit cards through a mobile device. Seems like a great idea, but there is a serious security flaw that Square has overlooked that places consumers in dire risk.

In less than an hour, any reasonably skilled programmer can write an application that will "skim" – or steal – a consumer's financial and personal information right off the card utilizing an easily obtained Square card reader. How do we know? We did it. Tested on sample Square card readers with our own personal credit cards, we wrote an application in less than an hour that did exactly this.

Let me explain how easy it is to exploit the vulnerability.

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Former Apple boss prosecuted for industrial espionage

In a move which has sent shockwaves around the mobile phone and computer technology world, it’s been reported that a former Apple boss was prosecuted for industrial espionage.

Paul Devine was global supply manager for Apple, but he sold the company’s secrets to Asian suppliers. This apparently gave the Asian businesses greater negotiating clout with Apple, and which adversely affected Apple’s costs.

A reporter told knowyourmobile.com: “Mr Devine admitted that the loss to Apple from his actions was more than £1.2m.”

Mr. Devine was arrested last August after incriminating emails were found on his computer. The emails appeared to show that he would be willing to provide information in return for being paid.

Paul Devine admitted charges of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy and will be formally sentenced shortly.

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New Hack Turns Smartphones Into Covert Spying System

Note: Ever wonder if your cell phone is spying on you?
Stop and ask yourself this question, when was the last time your smartphone was more than six (6) feet away from you?

Still wondering how you may have lost that account..or that last contract?? Stop wondering, contact me...I can help. ~JDL |

huffingtonpost.com

Your phone is a covert spy device, secretly listening to and recording everything you say -- or at least, it could be, according to new research that has uncovered a smartphone hack affecting both Androids and iPhones.

The auto-answer feature installed on most smartphones can be hacked to transform the phone into a listening machine, based on research by Ralf-Philipp Weinmann that shows a way hackers can break into the phone's baseband processor--which sends and receives radio signals on the cellular network--by exploiting bugs in the firmware of its radio chips.

"I will demo how to use the auto-answer feature present in most phones to turn the telephone into a remote listening device," Weinmann told InfoWorld in an e-mail.

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Apple and Developers Sued Over Alleged 'Spying' Apps

prlog.org

Apple and several developers are facing two separate lawsuits filed for allegedly allowing apps on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch to gather information on users and allowing third-party advertisers access to personal information. The collection and unauthorized sharing of private user data was the subject of the first lawsuit, Freeman vs. Apple, filed in northern California federal court, which targets such applications as Pandora, Dictionary.com, the Weather Channel, Toss It, Text4Plus, Talking Tom Cat and Pimple Popper Lite.

The second lawsuit, Lalo vs. Apple, filed in Federal court in San Jose, CA, seeks a class-action status for anyone who has downloaded an allegedly offending app between December 2008 and last week. Lalo vs. Apple targets Pandora, Paper Toss, the Weather Channel and Dictionary.com. Apple wasn't the only party sued. The developers who made the aforementioned applications were also named in the lawsuits.

Read more: http://technorati.com/technology/article/apple-and-developers-sued-over-alleged/#ixzz19tDCnp3r

iPhone and Android Apps Breach Privacy

foxnews.com

Few devices know more personal details about people than the smartphones in their pockets: phone numbers, current location, often the owner's real name—even a unique ID number that can never be changed or turned off.

These phones don't keep secrets. They are sharing this personal data widely and regularly, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

An examination of 101 popular smartphone "apps"—games and other software applications

for iPhone and Android phones—showed that 56 transmitted the phone's unique device ID to other companies without users' awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone's location in some way. Five sent age, gender and other personal details to outsiders.

The findings reveal the intrusive effort by online-tracking companies to gather personal data about people in order to flesh out detailed dossiers on them.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/18/apps-watching/#ixzz18ZIr0vyk

Bugged Phone Tripped Up Apple Leaker

srimeenakshimobiles.com
An employee at an Apple parts supplier has been caught on tape selling inside information [pdf] about Apple to a hedge fund broker. The information, potentially worth millions to the broker, was sold by Walter Shimoon for a mere $22,000. Shimoon has since been fired by camera and charger component maker Flextronics International, and was arrested by US law enforcement this morning. Among other things, he was recorded leaking sales information, details about the iPhone's cameras and about a mysterious product known only as "K48."

Shimoon, who played a role in contract negotiations with Apple, is alleged to have passed information via phone calls with clients of Primary Global Research, an expert-networking company based in California. One of the people he was talking to, however, was a government witness who was recording the phone calls. According to the recordings, Shimoon revealed third quarter 2009 sales figures for iPhones and fourth quarter 2009 sales figures for iPods during a phone call in October 2009. During this call, Shimoon also let drop the news that the 2010 iPhone would have two cameras. "We're working with them on the camera," Shimoon said, according to the complaint against him. "You know, they're very secretive."

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Australia warns of iPhone security risk

SYDNEY — A senior Australian crime official has raised serious security concerns over popular smartphones such as Apple's iPhone, which he warned was particularly vulnerable to hacking and information theft.

John Lawler, head of the Australian Crime Commission, said the virtual world had brought "boundless opportunities" for crime gangs and mobile technologies were giving criminals "previously unimaginable" reach.

He singled out the iPhone as especially at-risk, explaining that it was the "third most used system in the world" for businesses and "deployed or piloted by more than 70 percent of Fortune 100 companies".

"Yet IT managers are swimming against the phone?s tide of popularity because they can?t centralise installation and security updates as with other software," Lawler told a criminology conference on Tuesday.

"This overwhelming desire for instant services (comes) at the expense of security safeguards."

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What your phone app doesn't say: It's watching

(AP)

LAS VEGAS — Your smart phone applications are watching you — much more closely than you might like.

Lookout Inc., a mobile-phone security firm, scanned nearly 300,000 free applications for Apple Inc.'s iPhone and phones built around Google Inc.'s Android software. It found that many of them secretly pull sensitive data off users' phones and ship them off to third parties without notification.

That's a major concern that has been bubbling up in privacy and security circles.

The data can include full details about users' contacts, their pictures, text messages and Internet and search histories. The third parties can include advertisers and companies that analyze data on users.

The information is used by companies to target ads and learn more about their users. The danger, though, is that the data become vulnerable to hacking and use in identity theft if the third party isn't careful about securing the information.

Lookout reported its findings this week in conjunction with the Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas.

Lookout found that nearly a quarter of the iPhone apps and almost half the Android apps contained software code that contained those capabilities.

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iPhones and BlackBerrys contributing to corporate espionage

siliconrepublic.com

The world of computer forensics used to be largely confined to the computer hard drive, but as more and more business professionals carry sensitive data around with ease on smart phones, BlackBerrys and iPhones, the challenge is to sort through the massive amounts of data being created and stored, as well as getting to grips with the different storage formats of all of these mobile devices.

“Investigators are now required to review and analyze a massive volume of data,” said Chris Taylor, forensic investigator with Dublin-based IT security company, Espion.

The average data seizure is now in the region of a staggering 180GB, so if a forensic computer scientist wanted a cromulent analysis of a PC’s hard drive it would take an entire week for that device alone, and the proliferation of the mobile device throws another spanner into the works.

“The impact of new technical devices is also extremely relevant, as there is a growing need for investigators to consider forensic artifacts on mobile devices.”

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Spyware on Your Cell Phone?

newsweekinteractive.org
How suspicious spouses, protective parents, and concerned companies are turning to cheap and hard-to-detect commerical spyware apps to monitor your mobile communications.

Sometime in early 2007, Richard Mislan, an assistant professor of cyberforensics at Purdue University, started getting phone calls and e-mails from people around the world—all looking for help with the same problem. “They thought someone was listening in on their cell-phone calls,” he says. “They wanted to know what they could do to confirm it was happening.”

Mislan, who has examined thousands of phones at the Purdue Cyber Forensics Lab, politely disregarded some callers as a little paranoid. Others, he thought, had reason to be concerned. A decade ago the idea that anyone with little technical skill could turn a cell phone into a snooping device was basically unrealistic. But as the smart-phone market proliferates—it grew 86 percent in the United States alone last year—so do all the ethical kinks that come with it.

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Hack into a smart phone? It's easy, security experts find

latimes.com

Just one number can unlock your personal information, your private conversations and even your whereabouts to smart-phone hackers.

Security researchers Nick DePetrillo and Don Bailey have discovered a seven-digit numerical code that can unlock all kinds of secrets about you.

It's your phone number.

Using relatively simple techniques, this duo can use your cellphone number to figure out your name, where you live and work, where you travel and when you sleep. They could even listen to your voice messages and personal phone calls — if they wanted to. "It's really interesting to watch a phone number turn into a person's life," DePetrillo said.

"Everyone's taught to keep their Social Security number a secret," Bailey said. "But the phone number seems just as dangerous, if not more so."

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iPhone Security Flaw: Using a PIN Won't Help You

pcworld.com
Using a four-digit PIN to lock your iPhone doesn't really protect your data, security and IT blogger Bernd Marienfeldt has discovered. In an article describing the iPhone's business security framework, Marienfeldt has found a "data protection vulnerability" in Apple's iPhone 3GS.

Marienfeldt, working with security expert Jim Herbeck, has been able to reproduce the vulnerability on at least three non jail-broken iPhone 3GS handsets with different iPhone OS versions installed (including the latest). All tested iPhones were protected with a four-digit PIN.

In Marienfeldt's own words:

"The unprotected iPhone 3GS mounting is “limited” to the DCIM folder under Ubuntu <>please do make sure that the native Ubuntu system is fully up to date, e.g. “apt-get update, “apt-get upgrade” - any virtualization based solution will not work as described). I used the Alternate CD with x86 and AMD64 on different hardware."

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The Snitch in Your Pocket

newsweek.com
Amid all the furor over the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program a few years ago, a mini-revolt was brewing over another type of federal snooping that was getting no public attention at all. Federal prosecutors were seeking what seemed to be unusually sensitive records: internal data from telecommunications companies that showed the locations of their customers' cell phones—sometimes in real time, sometimes after the fact. The prosecutors said they needed the records to trace the movements of suspected drug traffickers, human smugglers, even corrupt public officials. But many federal magistrates—whose job is to sign off on search warrants and handle other routine court duties—were spooked by the requests. Some in New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas balked. Prosecutors "were using the cell phone as a surreptitious tracking device," said Stephen W. Smith, a federal magistrate in Houston. "And I started asking the U.S. Attorney's Office, 'What is the legal authority for this? What is the legal standard for getting this information?' "

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Security Cam app turns your iPhone into a spy camera

venturebeat.com
There has been plenty of controversy around which iPhone applications are appropriate for the Apple App Store, including the heated rejection of Google Voice. In this context, it’s almost shocking that Crowded Road’s new Security Cam iPhone app has been accepted to the App Store.

The camera app is pretty questionable on its own. It basically turns your iPhone into a functioning “security and spy camera,” according to its developer. Promoting users to spy on people and take pictures without their knowledge doesn’t seem very socially responsible to me — something that you’d think the Apple guard dogs would have caught onto by now.

Regardless, if you’re looking to get into the security or spy business, the app has some pretty impressive features. Notably, users are able to customize an audio trigger so that the camera will only snap a photo when a certain audio level is reached.

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SMS Snoop Software Captures Tigers of the World

coolest-gadgets.com
Thinking of pulling off a Tiger Woods? You’d best go through your thought processes a couple of times more with wives and girlfriends being all the more wary about your ‘good boy’ image, as they now have the help of SMS Snoop – an application that was specially designed and programmed to catch those who abuse cellphone technology by cheating on their spouse or partner via SMS. All you need is a momentary lapse of concentration, where your spouse can then install the application without you knowing any better, and each SMS sent out by you will also be forwarded to their cellphone. All data can be saved or retrieved at any time for future proof in the event of infidelity.

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