Updated data zapping for Windows Mobile

Rating: Delete that sensitive data via SMS

Given the bad publicity stemming from the accidental loss of sensitive data, British software developer, Aiko Solutions, has released a new version of its SecuWipe app. The app is aimed at Windows phones and Windows CE terminals.

Arcot and MasterCard use mobile apps to bolster credit card security

Authentication experts Arcot have announced that MasterCard security features for credit cards are now available for your mobile phone. What this means is that you can now authorise your credit card transactions over your phone (”Card Not Present” transactions) with the same level of security as if you were using a physical MasterCard terminal. In theory, at least.

Is it easy to monitor mobile phone calls? Weaknesses revealed in GSM

Every year since 1984, there has been an interesting convention in Germany. The annual Chaos Communications Congress is a meeting of international hackers, who convene to share information, listen to lectures and attend workshops. This year one of the speakers, a German encryption specialist, has really put the wind up the mobile scene - by claiming to have completely broken through the encryption code that keeps mobile calls on GSM networks safe from monitoring.

MEF claims credit for 2009’s trends

Rating: Some of its 2010 predictions are a tad obscure
Inevitably at this time of year, predictions for 2010 are two a penny. But the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) takes the genre one step further. Not content with saying what will happen next,  it claims the glory for 2009’s triumphs.
Apparently for 2009, the MEF predicted that, [...]

How to protect your jailbroken iPhone from worms

Rating: The answer is alpine. What was the question again?
Checking out a blog on  ‘Virus migration from desktop to mobile’  from virus specialist, AVG, it struck GoMo News that the fix for an iWorm that afflicts only ‘jailbroken’ iPhones needs more publicity. Just change the default password from ‘apline’. OK?
Last month the security software [...]

G&D offers card to secure Android phones

Rating: Might catch on if cards are competitively priced
It could be regarded as something of a sledgehammer to crack a nut but Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) has come up with a memory card designed to make any application running on a Google/Android phone highly secure.
Given that many view any ‘Open Source’ application as inherently [...]

New iPhone app encrypts your SMS for privacy and… fun?

Here’s an interesting one. App developer Ellis Vigeo has released an iPhone app that applies encryption software to your SMS. The TextSafe app is directly marketed as the thing to use if you want to make sure that someone “snooping” through your phone won’t read your texts.

Mobile spyware generates incredibly useful data, but will people stand for it?

Here’s an interesting story. Way back in 2004, two researchers at MIT announced a new kind of cellphone. This phone would monitor you constantly, recording and learning from everything you did. By constantly tracking your location, your friends locations and your communications, it would learn the things you do every day, including when and where you did them, and who you do them with. Things have changed in the five years since then. The service has been transformed from an actual device into “logging software” - and the first results from a study using it have now been released. It makes for pretty interesting reading.

iPhone SMS security scare isn’t the first mobile panic this year, won’t be the last

So the Blackhat conference yesterday in Las Vegas revealed a possible security exploit in the iPhone. If an SMS containing certain code is sent to your iPhone, it could allow a “bad person” to take over certain functions of your phone. While this is a genuinely scary idea, the reaction to it has been one of phenomenal scare-mongering. Does this remind anyone else of the incredibly similar scare concerning Android phones in January? Remember how much damage that caused? That’s right: none.

Security or invasion of privacy? MobilMine from Motolingo monitors mobile usage

Every once in a while a mobile service comes along that has truly staggering potential for invasion of privacy. These services are often extremely useful in terms of family safety or field-employee monitoring. But the “Big Brother” use they can be put to makes me nervous. Todays offering is MobilMine Pro from Motolingo, a service that monitors, records and reports on calls, emails and texts from your device. Or your childs device. Or your employees device.

Cloudmark launches anti-spam for SMS and messaging

Mobile messaging security company Cloudmark has today announced it’s new security solution, Mobile Authority. It’s basically an anti-spam solution, which is attempting to combat the three major security abuses of SMS. First, abusive or spam texts. Second, texts with malicious or virus content. Third, phishing or fraud SMS.

Dev-Team unlock for iPhone 3.0 OS is ready

The iPhone Dev-Team has unleashed it’s long-awaited unlock for the iPhone 3G running iPhone OS 3.0. The unlock will allow iPhone owners to operate outside of the now-traditional network lock on iPhones - so that owners are no longer tied to one network. It doesn’t work on the new 3G S, but it will operate on any older device running 3.0

Control your children! Flash Networks unleashes parental control service for mobile Internet use

Flash Networks has announced it’s new parental control service, Content Control 2.0. The web-based application offers parents a pretty comprehensive set of options to limit what kind of content a child can access over the mobile Web. The service caters to people on all points along the “control axis”, from the merely concerned all the way to the ferociously dictatorial.

India continues the battle against illegal mobile activity

India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade today announced that is banning certain mobile phones from entering the country. Any device lacking a 15-digit IMEI code is banned from being imported.

Mobile banking taking off in India (hopefully) with Union Bank

Union Bank of India has announced a pretty comprehensive set of mobile banking services, called Umobile. Further announcements are expected next week, but SMS and WAP options have been revealed.

The UBI will be allowing it’s customers to transfer money between accounts in their bank and other banks, stop cheques, pay bills, shop on-line and buy [...]

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