It should come as no surprise that most mobile apps run some sort of analytics on user behavior. But in the case of Facebook, the social network’s Messenger app for iOS apparently tracks quite a bit more than most users likely realize.
iOS forensics and security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski spent Tuesday morning disassembling Facebook Messenger’s iOS binary, at one point declaring via Twitter that “Messenger appears to have more spyware type code in it than I've seen in products intended specifically for enterprise surveillance.” In an email, Zdziarski said that Messenger is logging practically everything a user might do within the app.
Read moreNormal people spend their nights watching movies, reading articles, socializing or (yes, I know it's odd) sleeping. I spend my nights reading RFCs and pentesting various applications/services.
One night I was randomly reading the tel URI scheme RFC as I am fascinated by old relics that are still used today, their flaws and the way people never read the RFC which leads to RTFM pwnage as I call it. As I finished reading the tel RFC I looked at my iPhone and said: Cool, let's try it out!. I instacoded a small html page and loaded it in Safari. As I clicked the click me link I was prompted with a nice dialog asking me if I really want to call 0000.
Read moreApple says that the mass theft of nude celebrity photos that were released over the weekend did not occur because of a breach in any Apple systems, including iCloud.
Apple says, however, that certain celebrities were the subject of targeted hacking attempts that focused on compromising their usernames, passwords, and security questions. Though Apple's statement doesn't make it entirely clear, it sounds as though iCloud may still have been involved in the thefts in some capacity: that is, Apple's customers may have had their iCloud usernames and passwords stolen, giving another party access to their account.
Read moreChina is looking to launch its own operating system, an initiative that the government reportedly hopes will make its information systems more secure. Ni Guangnan, of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the country's state-run engineering arm, says the new Chinese operating system could be launched as early as October.
Details regarding the underpinnings of the operating system have yet to be revealed, but the move was reportedly spurred by the end of support of Windows XP and the ban on Windows 8 in China. The government also launched an anti-monopoly probe against Microsoft earlier this year.
Read moreFacebook will soon be pushing out an update to its iOS Messenger app meant to patch a vulnerability that could allow attackers to place pricy calls from users' phones by simply making them click on a web link.
The flaw has been recently discovered by developer Andrei Neculaesei from Copenhagen, and can be triggered by using the tel URL scheme. "The tel URL scheme is used to launch the Phone app on iOS devices and initiate dialing of the specified phone number," it is explained in an Apple document. "When a user taps a telephone link in a webpage, iOS displays an alert asking if the user really wants to dial the phone number and initiates dialing if the user accepts.
Read moreA Brazilian judge has called for Apple and Google to remove the anonymous social network Secret from their app stores and wipe it from phones on which it has already been installed across the country.
The San Francisco startup has come under fire from those charging that Secret and other anonymous apps too easily become sanctuaries for cyberbullying. Last week, a San Diego man started a Change.org petition seeking to remove Secret from Apple and Android app stores, though the petition had little support. On Monday, an opinion piece in the New York Times argued that anonymous apps and Internet websites such as Secret often make women and minorities a target for attack.
Read moreIn anticipation of the launch of the new operating system iOS 8, the company Apple started negotiations with working in health organizations about the deployment of the service HealthKit.
Platform HealthKit, presented at the developer conference WWDC 2014 will allow to gather in one place from a variety of sources of data on the user’s vital signs, including pulse, blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar, the amount of steps you’ve walked and calories burned, and make recommendations to maintain your health and even notify the attending physician in the case of the emergence of anxiety symptoms. Service HealthKit, as the application Health, integrated into iOS, 8, which will be released this fall.
Read moreAccording to the Chinese mass media charges, information security could suffer. At the same time Apple representatives claim that user‘s location data are only on his device and can't be saved on iTunes or iCloud.
Apple denies Chinese statement, broadcasted on China Central Television (CCTV) about surveillance over users. The "Frequent Locations" function caused many questions. According to the Chinese mass media, the information gathered by Apple can reveal the entire country's economic situation and even state secrets. In turn, Apple‘s technical support declares that the "Frequent Locations" function doesn't track your smartphone.
Read moreForensic scientist and author Jonathan Zdziarski has demonstrated a number of undocumented high-value forensic services running on every iOS device and suspicious design omissions in iOS that make collection easier.
He also provided examples of forensic artifacts acquired that should never come off the device without user consent. At the Hackers On Planet Earth conference in New York, Zdziarski revealed a slide, called ‘Identifying Backdoors, Attack Points, and Surveillance Mechanisms in iOS Devices.
Read moreMass Media in China believes that iPhone‘s opportunity to track user‘s locations threatens national security.
If you turn on «Frequent Locations» function, then iPhone users can be tracked and information about them revealed. Then smartphone starts to accumulate information about the user. It means that in few days iPhone is able to learn a lot of things about user's private life, such as his working place, home address, his friends‘ location, shops and restaurants that user visits. Experts point out that this is sensitive data about user. If the data were accessed, it could reveal an entire country's economic situation and "even state secrets," the researcher said.
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