Tag: mobile security

Mobile commerce may be supported by the next iPhone

The world of mobile technology continues to move at break-neck speeds. Roughly six months after the launch of the iPhone 5, there are rumors circulating through the technology world concerning the next iteration of Apple’s iPhone. Apple is almost certainly working on a new mobile device, but whether it will be a new iPhone has yet to be revealed. The company has been looking to hire new talent that could hint toward the possible future of the iPhone, however, especially its future in the realm of mobile commerce.

Job listings hint at possible uses for AuthenTec technology

Several job listings for Apple are calling to software engineers and other talented individuals. One of these postings is for a position in Apple’s Melbourne Design Center in Florida, where AuthenTec is located. AuthenTec is a security company that Apple acquired in 2012 and Apple has been leveraging the company’s security solutions in order to ensure that mobile devices as protected against malicious attacks. These solutions could come in handy as Apple begins to take mobile commerce more seriously.

Apple backs away from mobile commerce with iPhone 5

In the months before the official launch of the iPhone 5, Apple had hinted that mobile commerce would be a significant focus for the new mobile device. Rumors suggested that the iPhone 5 would be equipped with NFC technology, making it capable of facilitating mobile transactions. This was not the case, however, as Apple adopted a slow and steady approach to the issue of mobile commerce, suggesting that NFC technology was simply not secure enough for the company’s interests in this particular field. While the iPhone 5 has not become the mobile payments platform that many consumers had hoped for, Apple has not abandon its interest in mobile commerce in any significant way.

Security solution could make mobile payments secure through a new iPhone

Apple has recently acquired trademarks for “AuthenTec” and “KeepSafe,” the latter of which refers to a security solution that may be a prominent feature of a future iteration of the iPhone. KeepSafe is a fingerprint enabled application that allows users to encrypt digital information. This information can only be accessed through fingerprint scan, making this information exceptionally secure as it can only be accessed by the owner of the fingerprint on file. This could add a significant layer of protection for Apple’s mobile commerce endeavors if the company has plans to make a future iPhone with mobile payment capabilities.

According to the recent study, the attacks on smartphones with this operating systems are rapidly rising.

NQ Mobile security solutions company has just released a report that has shown that the number of malware attacks that are occurring on devices that are based on the Android operating system significantly increased in 2012.

The report was issued on Monday and underlined the importance of smartphone protections against attacks.

The report drew attention to the fact that as the operating system becomes increasingly popular, so do the attempts to infect it from those with unethical intentions. It urged consumers using smartphones to become aware of the risks of using mobile security devices and to alter their behaviors in order to protect themselves against attacks.

The mobile security report showed that the popularity of Android does make it a malware target.

As a whole, the number of mobile security attacks that were recorded on Android smartphones were recorded to have doubled from 2011 to 2012. According to the authors of the report, this has made these devices among the most profitable cybercriminal trends. Last year the most commonly used techniques of this nature were phishing and smishing, which are those that are used in an attempt to gain use of the personal and/or financial information of the users.

Among the primary mobile security results that were noted by the report include:

• An increase of 163 percent in the instance of malware, as 65,227 new malware pieces were discovered last year, when compared to 24,794 which were discovered the year before.
• A specific target of malware of 94.8 percent toward Android devices last year. Comparatively, only 4 percent of these harmful attacks were geared specifically toward Symbian based devices.
• Of all of the mobile security malware that was discovered last year, 28 percent had been designed for the specific intention of obtaining personal and financial data from users for the purpose of profit for the attacker.

This mobile security report has supported the results of other studies that are revealing that there is a rapidly growing trend of malware issues on smartphones, as their popularity continues to grow worldwide.