Preparing for the iPhone X and the Future of Facial Recognition Technology

As we approach the holiday season, both consumers and IT professionals are considering replacing their old devices with a whole new lineup of smartphones, phablets and tablets. Whether you’re treating yourself, adding to your wish list or considering options for your next enterprise rollout, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of introducing the…

Samsung, Apple, Huawei Phones Hacked at Mobile Pwn2Own

Researchers have managed to hack the Samsung Galaxy S8, the iPhone 7 and the Huawei Mate 9 Pro on the first day of the Mobile Pwn2Own 2017 competition taking place alongside the PacSec conference in Tokyo, Japan. The prize pool for the event organized by Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) exceeds $500,000 and participants…

Android malware on Google Play adds devices to botnet

We have encountered a new and highly prevalent type of Android malware (detected as Android.Sockbot) posing as apps on Google Play and later adding compromised devices into a botnet. So far we have identified at least eight such apps, with an install base ranging from 600,000 to 2.6 million devices. This malware appears primarily targeting…

Android Ransomware Abuses Accessibility Services

A newly discovered ransomware family targeting Android devices is abusing the platform’s accessibility services, ESET warns. Dubbed DoubleLocker, this innovative Android malware doesn’t merely encrypt users’ data, but also locks the infected devices down, security researchers from ESET say. The ransomware is based on the source code of BankBot banking Trojan, which is already known for misusing…

How Apple’s Face ID works, learns, and protects

Apple has unveiled a new version of its privacy page and a paper throwing more light on how Face ID, its newest biometric authentication option, works on iPhone X (“Ten”). The former places even more importance on security and privacy features and policies, something that Apple is becoming even more vocal about than before. It’s abundantly clear that Apple…

Google Discloses Critical Wi-Fi Flaws Affecting iOS, Android

Google Project Zero has disclosed the details of two critical remote code execution vulnerabilities affecting the Broadcom Wi-Fi chips found in many Android and iOS devices. The flaws, identified as CVE-2017-11120 and CVE-2017-11121, were patched in Android on September 5 with this month’s security updates and in iOS on September 19 with the release of…

iOS 11 Patches 8 Security Vulnerabilities

Apple this week announced the availability of 8 security patches for its iPhone 5s and later, iPad Air and later, and iPod touch 6th generation users, released as part of the iOS 11 platform upgrade. The bugs affect 7 platform components, namely Exchange ActiveSync, iBooks, Mail MessageUI, Messages, MobileBackup, Safari, and WebKit. Exploitation of these…