Items tagged with SMS
Phishing attacks are currently the number one cause of data compromises, and they are becoming more sophisticated as additional countermeasures are developed and deployed and users become more wary of suspicious or unexpected messages. Just last week, we covered a new phishing technique that creates an animated login...
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Advertisements are everywhere. You can find them on TV, on the Internet, on billboards, in your mail, and now within your text messages sent from reputable sources. Earlier this week, developer Chris Lacy posted to Twitter about an "SMS AD" attached to a Google verification code sent to his phone.
On Monday, Lacy...
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If you catch the flu, you may be stuck at home or even bedridden for a few days until you get better. If you catch the FluBot malware, you could be at risk of losing sensitive information, such as banking details and personal information. While this malware campaign has not made it across the pond from Europe yet, it...
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Cell phones are a necessity in day-to-day life, allowing communications and access to numerous websites and accounts. Thus, losing access to a phone or text messages could be as bad, if not worse, than losing a credit card. Even more concerning would be if a hacker could intercept texts without the phone's owner even...
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Most modern tech users are all likely familiar with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Many would consider this security enhancement to be absolutely essential to protecting one’s online accounts. However, some forms of MFA are more secure than others. SMS and voice MFA mechanisms tend to be some of the most...
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Google began rolling out its new SMS text messaging protocol earlier with month, with features powered RCS by (Rich Communication Services). This is intended to deliver a richer messaging experience. And it does, though the rollout is not going without a hitch. Unfortunately, telecoms are doing a poor job implementing...
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Security researchers at ESET have discovered an active ransomware campaign targeting Android users, thus ending a two-year decline in this form of malware in Google's mobile ecosystem. And unlike past ransomware campaigns, this one employs "some unusual tricks" to attract victims, and then spreads to contacts through...
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Using two-factor authentication (2FA) is generally regarded as a superior way of securing an account than using a password alone, but even adding that extra layer of security comes with its own unique risks. This was highlighted in a recent security breach in which tens of millions of SMS text messages were exposed...
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If you use an Android smartphone, you are probably familiar with the Android Messages application (since it is the default messaging application used on many devices). There are other Android messaging applications out there in use on some devices. One of the things that Google is doing with Android Messages is to...
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Nearly a billion text messages are sent every hour, and that does not take into account app-to-app messaging. Overall, some 8 trillion (yes, TRILLION!) texts are sent each year, which again does not include app-to-app messages. For better or worse, texting has become a part of everyday life, and it all started 25 years ago on December 3, 1992,
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Have you ever noticed that when a service becomes almost incomprehensibly large, it can begin to care less and less about what people think about it? Some might feel that way about Facebook, a company that time and time again has forced changes on its users that haven't been very well received.
A major example of...
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The mobile industry has lost a giant. His name is Matti Makkonen, and though that might not be a name you're familiar with, you probably use a technology that he helped pioneer -- text messaging. Known as the father of SMS, Makkonen passed away at the age of 63 from an unspecified illness. Sad indeed, though his...
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Imagine that without any misguided action or behavior of your own your iOS device were to crash, simply as the result of receiving a text string via your iPhone or iPad's Messages app. Next, imagine that after this "What the heck!??!!" event (and device reboot, of course) you subsequently could not even open the...
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U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, ruled that Apple must face a U.S. federal lawsuit related to iMessage and its interception of SMS text messages when users switch from an iPhone handset to a phone on another platform, such as Google's Android operating system. In such cases, if the user didn't...
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Teaming up with rappers in the audio headset market is fast becoming the newest fad in the tech industry. To wit, Apple recently joined forces with Dr. Dre by purchasing Beats Music for $3 billion, and now Intel is collaborating with rapper 50 Cent and his SMS Audio company to jointly release a set of earphones with...
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Here's what isn't surprising: Facebook is trying to take over where the conventional text message left off. Here's what is surprising: that is has taken this long to get to this point. The tried-and-true phone number is a hangover technology from many generations ago, and it's actually quite unfortunate that it's...
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Up and comers don't like to hear it, but experience often times beats youth. Ask the 2011 Dallas Mavericks, in which the average age was just over 32 years old (ancient in the basketball world) or 2008 Boston Celtics, which had half a dozen players over the age of 30 on the roster, including two 38-year-olds. Both...
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It's hard to understate the global importance of Wikipedia. While many traditional university professors still won't allow the crowdsourced site to be listed as a source, only a fool would deny the site's impact on educating the world in areas they may have otherwise never stumbled upon. Particularly in developing...
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Facebook announced that it’s updated its Facebook Messenger for Android app to allow users to create a Messenger account without actually joining Facebook. Instead, you can sign up for the service with merely your name and cell phone number. Over the next few weeks, the new Messenger accounts will be rolling...
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FEMA and the National Weather Service are looking out for you. How so? They're joining up to launch the Wireless Emergency Alert System, which is described as a free SMS system that will text users connected to cell towers in areas that are being nailed with storms or other disasters. The idea here is to broadcast...
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There's iMessage for iOS and Mac users, and there's BBM for BlackBerry users. What about Android, you say? Well, for those users, there's MightyText. The company actually began as Texty, and has been in a Chrome beta state for the past few months. Now, however, they're launching to the world, and including support for...
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By early next year, the nation will have a new way to call for help--via text message. Verizon Wireless announced that it’s working on a service to provide SMS-to-911 capabilities, which it says will be operational in early 2013. Simply put, the emergency service will allow anyone to send an SMS message to a 911 call center, also known...
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