Category: smartphones

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Hacking Voice Assistants with Ultrasonic Waves

Posted on By infossl
academicpapers, android, apple, google, hacking, iphone, Security technology, sidechannelattacks, smartphones, video

I previously wrote about hacking voice assistants with lasers. Turns you can do much the same thing with ultrasonic waves: Voice assistants — the demo targeted Siri, Google Assistant, and Bixby — are designed to respond when they detect the owner’s voice after noticing a trigger phrase such as ‘Ok, Google’. Ultimately, commands are just … Read More “Hacking Voice Assistants with Ultrasonic Waves” »

Modern Mass Surveillance: Identify, Correlate, Discriminate

Posted on By infossl
cameras, essays, facerecognition, identification, lawenforcement, laws, privacy, Security technology, smartphones, surveillance

Communities across the United States are starting to ban facial recognition technologies. In May of last year, San Francisco banned facial recognition; the neighboring city of Oakland soon followed, as did Somerville and Brookline in Massachusetts (a statewide ban may follow). In December, San Diego suspended a facial recognition program in advance of a new … Read More “Modern Mass Surveillance: Identify, Correlate, Discriminate” »

Smartphone Election in Washington State

Posted on By infossl
auditing, authentication, Security technology, smartphones, voting

This year: King County voters will be able to use their name and birthdate to log in to a Web portal through the Internet browser on their phones, says Bryan Finney, the CEO of Democracy Live, the Seattle-based voting company providing the technology. Once voters have completed their ballots, they must verify their submissions and … Read More “Smartphone Election in Washington State” »

Technical Report of the Bezos Phone Hack

Posted on By infossl
amazon, hacking, malware, saudiarabia, Security technology, smartphones, spyware

Motherboard obtained and published the technical report on the hack of Jeff Bezos’s phone, which is being attributed to Saudi Arabia, specifically to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. …investigators set up a secure lab to examine the phone and its artifacts and spent two days poring over the device but were unable to find any … Read More “Technical Report of the Bezos Phone Hack” »

SIM Hijacking

Posted on By infossl
academicpapers, authentication, cellphones, fraud, Security technology, simcards, smartphones, usability

SIM hijacking — or SIM swapping — is an attack where a fraudster contacts your cell phone provider and convinces them to switch your account to a phone that they control. Since your smartphone often serves as a security measure or backup verification system, this allows the fraudster to take over other accounts of yours. … Read More “SIM Hijacking” »

ToTok Is an Emirati Spying Tool

Posted on By infossl
apple, eavesdropping, google, malware, phones, privacy, Security technology, smartphones, spyware, surveillance, unitedarabemirates

The smartphone messaging app ToTok is actually an Emirati spying tool: But the service, ToTok, is actually a spying tool, according to American officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment and a New York Times investigation into the app and its developers. It is used by the government of the United Arab Emirates to try … Read More “ToTok Is an Emirati Spying Tool” »

Security Vulnerabilities in Android Firmware

Posted on By infossl
android, firmware, Security technology, smartphones, supplychain, vulnerabilities

Researchers have discovered and revealed 146 vulnerabilities in various incarnations of Android smartphone firmware. The vulnerabilities were found by scanning the phones of 29 different Android makers, and each is unique to a particular phone or maker. They were found using automatic tools, and it is extremely likely that many of the vulnerabilities are not … Read More “Security Vulnerabilities in Android Firmware” »

Wi-Fi Hotspot Tracking

Posted on By infossl
privacy, Security technology, smartphones, surveillance, tracking, wifi

Free Wi-Fi hotspots can track your location, even if you don’t connect to them. This is because your phone or computer broadcasts a unique MAC address. What distinguishes location-based marketing hotspot providers like Zenreach and Euclid is that the personal information you enter in the captive portal­ — like your email address, phone number, or … Read More “Wi-Fi Hotspot Tracking” »

A Feminist Take on Information Privacy

Posted on By infossl
power, privacy, Security technology, smartphones, surveillance, trust

Maria Farrell has a really interesting framing of information/device privacy: What our smartphones and relationship abusers share is that they both exert power over us in a world shaped to tip the balance in their favour, and they both work really, really hard to obscure this fact and keep us confused and blaming ourselves. Here … Read More “A Feminist Take on Information Privacy” »