Tag: mobile security

BlackBerry boosts mobile security investment with Encription acquisition

| March 1, 2016

The turnaround strategy for the struggling Canadian handset maker is now aiming toward cyber-protection.

BlackBerry has tried virtually everything to try to recover its floundering handset business, but the area in which it has remained strong – and where its future may lie – is in mobile security.

The company has underscored that belief in the recent acquisition of Encription, a company based in the U.K.

Encription is a consultancy that is based in cyber and mobile security. The importance of digital security has been increasing in virtually every industry around the world, particularly in the growth in of the Internet of Things (IoT). As the dependence on connected technology increases, so does the demand for security software and related consultancy services. BlackBerry has always been strong in this area and will likely be playing to that strength in order to recover from its suffering hardware business as it recreates itself.

The details regarding the acquisition of the cyber and mobile security firm have yet to be released.

Mobile Security - BlackberryThat said, by acquiring this company, BlackBerry will gain access to a large new customer base, in addition to the talent of about 40 professionals in the cyber security industry. These experts have already assisted in testing network vulnerabilities for a wealth of large corporations as well as government agencies.

The head of corporate development at BlackBerry, James Mackey, explained that acquiring Encription was a natural decision for the company and will seamlessly extend BlackBerry to allow it to offer a broader range of cyber security services than it ever has. Moreover, as it solidifies its customer base with the newest additions, it will now become possible for the Canadian tech company to cross-sell its own software products.

Protecting device users against mobile security threats, as well as the creation and implementation of strategies to mitigate those threats and the enhancement of vital IT security standards are some of the areas in which BlackBerry has held considerable appeal among consumers and business customers, alike. Many industry analysts have been predicting this path for the company for well over a year, as the hardware side of the company continues a downward stumble.

Mobile apps using Baido code are leaking personal info

| February 29, 2016

Thousands of applications running on this code have been found to be collecting and sharing private data.

According to researchers at Citizen Lab in Canada, there are currently thousands of popular mobile apps that are running code created by Baidu, the internet giant from China, and the code has been causing those applications to collect the personal information of the users and transmit it to the company.

The researchers pointed out that a great deal of that personal information would be very easy to intercept.

It is estimated that the mobile apps using Baidu’s code have had hundreds of millions of downloads. The researchers have traced the issue back to problems in the software development kit (SDK) by Baido for creating Android applications. The mobile security threat applies to the Baidu browser as well as the apps that were created by the company and other firms that employ the same SDK in their app development. That said, while it was primarily Android applications that were affected, the Windows browser from Baidu was also among them.

The same researchers said that comparable types of security issues were present in the Alibaba UC Browser mobile app.

Mobile Apps The UC Browser from Alibaba and another popular mobile browser that is broadly downloaded and used in the largest internet market on the planet have also both been affected with unsecured personal data transmission.

That said, while Alibaba has already moved forward and has repaired the vulnerabilities, Baidu had yet to have completed that task at the time of the writing of this article. The company was, however, in the process of making the repairs to the holes in the kit’s encryption. Still, it admitted that it would not cease to collect data for commercial use. Some of the data collected by Baidu will also be shared with third parties. Still, the company said that it “only provides what data is lawfully requested by duly constituted law enforcement agencies.”

Among the unencrypted information collected through the Baidu code based mobile apps are the search terms that have been used by the user, his or her website visits, and his or her location. This, according to the Citizen Lab chief researcher, Jeffrey Knockel.