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Turning smartphones into secure and versatile keys

It’s already possible to open doors using an app – but we are a long way from seeing widespread acceptance of this in the market. Now, researchers have developed a piece of software that will make the technology even more secure and versatile.

 

Smartphones and tablets have become an integral part of our daily lives. The capabilities of these handily sized mini-computers seem almost boundless as we phone friends, shoot holiday snaps, lose ourselves in a new music download or access the internet to obtain the boarding card for our next fl ight in comfort. Does it not seem logical, then, that we should make use of these constant companions as the key to our cars, front doors or lockers as well? A few such solutions are already available, but what’s still missing is widespread market acceptance. At this year’s CeBIT trade fair in Hannover (March 5-9, 2013), researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT in Darmstadt will be demonstrating their Key2Share software, a solution which will make the key app concept even more versatile and secure.

“In essence, Key2Share offers two new functions: users can issue digital keys remotely and assign these keys certain user permissions. For instance, I can grant the building superintendent access to my apartment for a short period so that he can open the door for the gas meter to be read while I’m at work,” explains Alexandra Dmitrienko from the SIT. “The solution is built around modern security technologies and can be easily integrated into existing access control systems.” Key2Share sends electronic keys directly to the user’s mobile phone, in the form of a QR code attached to an e-mail or MMS.

Protecting parcel stations from phishing

One thing that Dmitrienko and her team will also be demonstrating at CeBIT (Hall 9, Booth E08) is a parcel station where access rights to individual compartments are issued using Key2Share. “Recently, users of parcel stations have fallen victim to phishing attacks. Equally, hackers continue to target their efforts on smartphones. In light of this, the big challenge was to protect the electronic keys without compromising the intuitive operation of such devices,” explains Dmitrienko.

Key2Share works using the Near Field Communication (NFC) transmission standard, which allows data to be exchanged wirelessly over short ranges of up to a few centimeters.“To open a door, all you need to do is hold your mobile phone close to the lock,” says Dmitrienko. NFC interface and door locks only operate within a narrow bandwidth and have limited computing power. Consequently, scientists at the SIT have equipped Key2Share with particularly resource-efficient communication protocols. Further, electronic keys are reliably protected on the smartphone from malware and unauthorized access. This is achieved by leveraging advanced technologies which keep sensitive data on the smartphone separate from other data and apps (e.g. Fraunhofer’s BizzTrust).

Communication between the mobile phone and a central server is protected by established security protocols. “And even if this communication is hacked into, it’s impossible for unauthorized people to gain access to the digital key. This is because opening the door requires information contained both in the encrypted token sent to the user and in the app installed on their smartphone,” clarifies Dmitrienko. Alongside front doors and parcel or locker compartments, the research scientist also suggests that the technology could potentially be applied to help administer keys in hotels or as part of car-sharing schemes. “The trend towards a ‘shareconomy’ will benefit the further development of this technology,” concludes Dmitrienko. So the era of mobile phones as keys is one step closer.

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Smartphones

As the name suggests, smartphones possess smarter capabilities than mobile phones, providing then additional, now essential functions like web browsing, multimedia entertainment, games etc – much like mini-computers, only small enough to fit in your pocket. Smartphones appeared in the market close to two decades ago as the alternative to mobile phones which carry the primary function to enable only two-way communication by text or calls. The smartphones of today have other extended capabilities including in-built high-quality camera lenses, mobile apps that aid productivity, video-streaming as well as connectivitiy that enable millions to stay connected while on the go.

What should we expect to see in the development of smartphones in the near future, say in the next five to ten years? This is probably hard to predict with accuracy due to the fast pace tech evolutions have been riding on. Yet, as we await with anticipation, why not observe the existing trends and make some wild guesses on where smartphones are heading? You shall see below a couple of features for smartphones that may become the focal points for development in the near future.

The Co-operative gets good with phones

The giant Co-operative Group and several regional co-operative societies have been hard at work in recent years rebadging their businesses to reflect "The Co-operative" brand. But, until now, the brand has gone no further than the long-established and traditional wing of the consumer co-operative movement. Now it is being stretched further, to embrace an independent co-operative offering telecoms services.

The decision by the Phone Co-op to take up the brand is significant, both for its own future and, arguably, for the co-operative movement more widely. The Phone Co-op is a relative youngster co-operatively speaking, having been set up in 1998 by its managing director Vivian Woodell, who felt there should be a co-op presence in the rapidly liberalising world of telecoms provision. Its 9,000 members have enthusiastically demonstrated that the nineteenth century idea of consumer co-operatives still works well today. The annual elections for board members are usually very strongly contested and, with broadly a quarter of the membership voting in elections, the Phone Co-op has the sort of active democracy larger co-operative societies dream of.

Its members are loyal, too, in an industry where customer churn is commonplace. Helped by some recent acquisitions (most notably the purchase of Saga's phone business), turnover has passed £10m. But, as Vivian Woodell explains, growing a telecoms business remains challenging. "The cost in the industry of acquiring customers is going up and up, and is becoming a very significant part of what people are paying," he says.

The Phone Co-op has successfully gained customers through affinity schemes with a host of campaigns and charities, including the Green Party, the Soil Association, WWF and the Campaign to Protect Rural England and it is about to launch a new tie-up with Amnesty International. Nevertheless, there is a sense that this pool of potential customers is becoming exhausted. "The [Co-operative] brand gives us an opportunity to get in front of a lot more people," Woodell says.

He says that the decision followed focus group work by the Phone Co-op, which suggested an encouraging level of recognition of the standard Co-operative brand. "People talked about ethics and fair trade, and knew what a co-operative was," he says. "Using the Co-operative brand is in a sense a shortcut for us in demonstrating what we stand for."

The Co-operative brand is looked after by the Co-operative Group and by representatives of those regional societies which have adopted it, and their acceptance of the Phone Co-op as a participant is a clear signal of Woodell's success in creating a credible new co-operative society. The Phone Co-op is now marketing itself to individual customers as "The Co-operative Phone and Broadband" and "The Co-operative Mobile", and to business clients as "The Co-operative Business Telecoms".

If there has been a criticism within the movement of the brand, however, it is that the general public may not understand that some of the businesses using it are independent co-operatives and not part of the dominant Co-operative Group. It was this inability to flag up their own autonomy which has prevented the Lincolnshire Co-operative, for example, from joining the national brand.

Woodell readily agrees that this is an issue which his co-operative considered carefully. The Phone Co-op has previously tried to bring as many of its customers as possible into membership (currently about a third of its customers are members), but the risk is there, that new customers who are already members of other co-ops may not understand the need to pay a further £1 to join the Phone Co-op. "We are adapting our communications to get the message across that the services are being brought by the Phone Co-op. In all our member communications, we're going to be very clear about that," Woodell explains. He points out that Midcounties co-operative society already uses the brand and still attracts a relatively strong level of member engagement.

Just possibly, the Phone Co-op's adoption of the brand may have a spin-off in helping raise public awareness more generally about the organisation of Britain's complicated consumer co-operative movement. Matt Lane, the Phone Co-op's marketing and partnerships manager, certainly sees an opportunity . "We feel we have a responsibility to educate people about the movement," he says, arguing that more people may begin to understand that the brand is a collective venture by several co-operative societies. The brand has been adopted by Midcounties,Anglia, Midlands, Southern, Chelmsford Star, Heart of England,Tamworth, and Radstock societies, as well as by the Co-operative Group itself.

Meanwhile the Phone Co-op itself may not necessarily always stick just to the relatively low-margin business of telecoms re-selling. It is known to have previously looked into electricity and gas re-selling, and has recently dipped a toe into micro-generation, particularly the solar panel business. It has also been exploring possible partnership arrangements with like-minded business organisations in continental Europe. Woodell says that he remains alert for possible acquisitions: "In the current market, in a rapidly consolidating industry it's very hard not to be in the market to do acquisitions," he says. As well as the Saga deal, the Phone Co-op recently took over a small venture, Transcend Communications.

The prognosis looks promising. After three years of limited growth, the Phone Co-op has, according to Woodell, just completed a much more profitable trading year. The level of dividends to be paid to members is something which legally the members themselves will vote on at the AGM early next year, but the prospects for an increase on last year's 1% dividend must be looking encouraging.

Android Smartphones

The smartphone industry is continuously refining itself and redefining the boundaries with changes and enhancements, like sleek design, integrated sensors, full HD video playback and more.  An increasing number of people are getting sick with the iPhone. Antenna issues, Apple’s draconian rules and the intentional omission of several common technologies, such as Flash, make Cupertino a little easy to dislike. Luckily, a horde of smartphones under the Android banner have enriched the phone industry since the past few years. Unlike early Android phones, these devices are no longer iPhone-wannabes. A collection of innovations, like mobile 3D, dual-screen and high performance processors, bring things that are entirely unique to the highly competitive market.

LG Optimus 3D

Finally, the 3D craze reaches the phone industry with the upcoming arrival of LG Optimus 3D, the first ever 3D smartphone. You don’t need to wear special glasses anywhere you go, just look at the 4.3” LCD display and watch 3D contents come to life. As if that isn’t enough, the phone will be equipped with two 5-megapixel rear-facing cameras, which can capture 1080p 3D videos. You can replay it on the phone or send it via HDMI to a 3D TV. However, some people argue that 3D TV is still technologically questionable, which make a 3D smartphone is somewhat comically frivolous. The extra depth of the screen may make the phone more difficult to use and small 3D screen may make the technology lacks a punch. The device was announced on the Mobile World Congress recently, so both availability and price remain unknown at the time being.

Motorola Atrix 4G

If you plug this phone into an optional dock and turn it into a 13” netbook, which includes a separate battery, physical keyboard and a full-size screen. Unfortunately, the complete set can cost you more than $500, quite expensive considering that an Intel Atom netbook with Windows 7 is now available at $350. Motorola Atrix 4G can be preordered at AT&T since last month at February and it will be available for the consumers at March 6. The phone itself (without the dock and other accessories) runs for nearly $200 with a 2-year contract.

Kyocera Echo

A 3.5” phone like Kyocera Echo can be a little cramped sometimes, but if you slide it apart, another screen will rise up, giving you a combined 4.7” LCD screen. The dual-screen configuration allows you to browse two websites side-by-site. You can also manage e-mails in one screen while listening to music from another screen. When playing games, you can also use one screen as a virtual controller, while using another screen for playing. Unfortunately, very few Android apps support dual-screen configuration right off the bat. Additionally, turning on both screens at the same time will significantly reduce battery life. You can pre-order Echo on Sprint in the end of March, which will be shipped on spring and available at $199 with contract.

Samsung Infuse 4G

It offers a whopping 4.5” Super AMOLED screen and a thin chassis. The Infuse 4G can be considered as both the thinnest and largest smartphone in AT&T’s portfolio. It supports both high-speed 4G connection and the ability to shoot 1080p videos. It is still remain to be seen whether the large screen will be practical for phone users, however, if you treat it as a “mini tablet”, the Samsung Infuse 4G is definitely attractive, The phone will be available in the middle of 2011 on the AT&T network.

Mobile Application

In January of this year, Ewing and Associatesbegan utilizing a mobile platform to aid customers in their search for a home. This new application, “ewingsir” is compatible with smart-phones such as the iPhone, Blackberry,Android or Windows Phone. The application’s innovative software allows consumers to easily search for homes near them but also internationally. The sleek design makes navigation easy so even the least tech-savvy consumer won’t feel daunted by all of the app’s features.

Consumers aren’t the only ones benefiting from this. Real estate agents are also able to connect with their clients by giving them a custom code for the agent’s specific application. With this, agents will receive all of the leads from a client’s search regardless of who has the listing. This technology will relieve the burden of planning around busy schedules and instead clients will be able to search for a home at their leisure. Agents and clients alike can take comfort in the newfound ease that this app will bring to the home buying process.

Lenovo Showcases New Android Smartphones; Heading To India, Russia & Indonesia

Lenovo is showcasing three of its upcoming smartphones at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Dubbed as IdeaPhone P770, IdeaPhone S890, and IdeaPhone S720, these phones have already been released in China, but their global versions will be released in Russia, India and Indonesia this year.

Talking about Lenovo IdeaPhone P770 first, it packs a massive 3500mAh battery, Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), 4.5-inch qHD IPS display, and a dual-core processor.

Coming to IdeaPhone S890, it comes with 5-inch IPS display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 8MP rear camera, and Android 4.1 with a custom Lenovo skin.

Lastly, Lenovo IdeaPhone S720 comes with Android 4.0, 4.5-inch qHD IPS display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 8MP rear camera, and Dolby Audio

Smart-Phone Attacks and Defenses

      Internet has been permeating into every corner of the world and every aspect of our lives, empowering us with anywhere, anytime remote access and control over information, personal communications (e.g., through smart-phones), and our environment (e.g., through the use of sensors, actuators,and RFIDs). While enabling interoperation with the Internet brings tremendous opportunities in service creation and information access, the security threat of the Internet also dauntingly extends its reach. In this paper, we wish to alarm the community that the long-realized risk of interoperationwith the Internet is becoming a reality: Smart-phones, interoperable between the telecom networks and the Internet,are dangerous conduits for Internet security threats toreach the telecom infrastructure. The damage caused bysubverted smart-phones could range from privacy violationand identity theft to emergency call center DDoS attacksand national crises. We also describe defense solution spaceincluding smart-phone ardening approaches, Internet-sidedefense, telecom-side defense, and coordination mechanismsthat may be needed between the Internet and telecom networks.Much of this space is yet to be explored.
 INTRODUCTION

            The first proof-of-concept smart-phone worm, Cabir [12],has recently appeared. This is among the first signs of theexpansion of the Internet security threats into other networkslike telecom networks by the means of int operatingdevices, e.g., smart-phones that are endpoints to both networks.

       These threats are especially alarming because assmart-phones become prevalent (according to market forecast[23], 30 millions smart-phones will be shipped in 2004,and more than 100 millions in 2007), and as their powerfulnessand functionality reaches that of PCs [21], a fast- andwide-spreading smart-phone worm or virus could cause thelarge cohort of compromised smart-phones to cripple thetelecom infrastructure and jeopardize critical call centers,such as 911, resulting in national crises.In fact, telecom networks are not the only reach of the Internetsecurity threats. Many have long realized that as webridge home networks, sensor networks, and RFID-based inventorysystems to the Internet for more flexible service creation and integration, we also give opportunities to Internetbasedintruions into those networks. Sometimes these intrusionscould even be transformed into physical attacks —∗This work was performed while Wenwu Zhu was affiliatedwith Microsoft Research Asia.for example, actuators could be maliciously instructed toturn on the oven and cause a fire accident.In this paper, we want to bring attention to the imminentdangers that Internet-compromised smart-phones canbring to telecom networks. We first give some backgroundon smart-phones and discuss their trend of having commondevelopment platforms for the ease of service creation anddeployment in Section 2. In Section 3, we describe variousattack vectors for compromising smart-phones; thenenumerate attacks launched by compromised smart-phonesagainst the telecom networks, including radio channel consumptionattacks, DDoS attacks against call centers, spamming,identity theft, and wiretapping. We give guidelinesand potential strategies on protecting the telecom infrastructureas well as smart-phones in Section 4 and discussother interoperating devices and the causes for such attacks

2. SMART-PHONES

           Smart-phone is the trend of unified communications whichintegrate telecom and Internet services onto a single devicebecause it has combined the portability of cell-phones withthe computing and networking power of PCs

            As illustratedin Figure 1, smart-phones, as endpoints of both networks, have connected the Internet and telecom networks together.

Figure 1: Smart-phones become end-points of both the Internet and telecom networks.

            Another key reason for this trend is the ease and low costof introducing new integrated Internet and telecom services.Easy service creation demands common operating systems(OSes). Because smart-phones are typically as powerful as afew year-old PCs, their operating systems have evolved to berather full-fledged. Smart-phone OSes today include SymbianOS [23], Microsoft Smart-phone OS [5], Palm OS [10],and embedded Linux. Although the detailed design andfunctionality vary among these OS vendors, all share thefollowing features [21]:• Access to cellular network with various cellular standardssuch as GSM /CDMA and UMTS.
• Access to the Internet with various network interfacessuch as infrared, Bluetooth, GPRS/CDMA1X, and 802.11;and use standard TCP/IP protocol stack to connect tothe Internet.

• Multi-tasking for running multiple applications simultaneously.
• Data synchronization with desktop PCs.
• Open APIs for application development.

            While common OSes, open APIs, and sophisticated capabilitiesenable powerful services, they also create commonground and opportunities for security breaches and increaseworm or virus spreading potentials. Given the PC-like natureof smart-phones and the trend of full-fledged OSes, software vulnerabilities seem inevitable for their OSes andapplications. Moreover, with the Internet exposure, smartphonesbecome ideal targets for Internet worms or virusessince smart-phones are always on, and their user populationwill likely exceed that of PCs, observing from the prevalence of cell phone usage today.
3. THE SMART-PHONE ATTACKS

             In this section, we first describe various ways that smartphonescould be compromised, then we illustrate how compromisedsmart-phones may attack telecom networks.
3.1 Compromising Smart-Phones

             There are three venues for a smart-phone to be compromised:

1.Attacks from the Internet:

            Since smart-phones arealso Internet endpoints, they can be compromised thesame way as the PCs by worms, viruses, or Trojanhorses. The first Symbian based Trojan [17] has recentlybeen discovered in a popular game software.

2. Infection from compromised PC during data
synchronization:

             Smart-phone users typically synchronizetheir e-mails, calendar, or other data withtheir desktop PCs through synchronization softwarelike ActiveSync [5]. There exists trust relationshipsbetween smart-phones and their respective synchronizationPCs. Therefore, to ultimately infect a smartphone,attackers can first infect its synchronizationPC, and then the smart-phone will be infected at thenext synchronization time.

3. Peer smart-phone attack or infection:

            A compromisedsmart-phone can actively scan and infect peersmart-phones through its Wireless Personal Area Networks(WPAN) interface such as Bluetooth or UWB(ultra wideband). Since smart-phones are mobile devices,they can infect new victims at different locations.The first smart-phone worm, Cabir [12], usesthis method.It is also possible that a cellular phone can be crashedby a malformed SMS text message [?]. Nonetheless, due tothe limited services provided by the telecom networks, theattack surface at the telecom side is much smaller than thatof the Internet side. Therefore, we believe that the risk thata smart-phone to be compromised on the telecom side isminimal.
3.2 Smart-Phone Attacks against the Telecom Networks

            Once a smart-phone is compromised from the Internet,it also becomes a source of malice to the telecom networksthat it has access to. Before we describe the attacks, we firstgive a brief description of the GSM cellular network [18],as an example of telecom networks against which smartphone attacks can be launched. Nevertheless, the attackswe describe here can be applied to other cellular networks,such as CDMA, as well.
3.2.1 Background: GSM
       GSM consists of three sub-systems: the Mobile Equipment(ME), the Base Station Subsystem (BSS), and theNetwork Switching Subsystem (NSS).

      ME has a Subscriber        Identity Module (SIM) for storing identities, such as theInternational Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI). BSS consistsof two elements: the Base Transceiver Station (BTS)which handles radio interfaces between BTS and MEs andthe Base Station Controller (BSC) which manages radio resourcesand handovers. NSS uses mobile switching center(MSC) for routing phone calls and connecting the GSM systemto other public networks such as PSTN.Besides voice communications, GSMalso offers ShortMessageService (SMS) [16], Multimedia Message Service [6],and GPRS general packet radio service [3] for Internet access.The radio spectrum is limited resource in any cellular systems.GSM uses a combination of Time and Frequency DivisionMultiple Access (TDMA/FDMA) to time-share orspace-share the radio resources. FDMA divides the (maximum) 25 MHz bandwidth into 124 carrier frequencies of 200KHz bandwidth each. One or more carrier frequencies areassigned to a base station. Each of the carrier frequenciesis then divided into 8 time slots, with the TDMA scheme.Suppose a base station has n carrier frequencies, then the maximum number of voice users it can support is at mostC = 8n. The value of n depends on the traffic volume ofa base station. Typically, n = 3 or 4. In CDMA-based ornext generation cellular networks [2, 9], logical “channels”are used for voice and data traffic, which, at a high level,are similar to time slots.Telecom networks operate under the following two assumptions:1Its traffic is highly predictable.

.

            2. Useridentities are tightly coupled with their telephone numbersor SIM cards. With the first assumption, telecom carriersplan their network capacity according to the predicted traffic model. With the second assumption, telephone numbers orSIM cards are used for accounting purposes. These assumptionshave been held (mostly) up to now. However, withthe prevalence of smart-phones in the near future, these assumptionscould be easily violated by attackers through subvertingsmart-phones from the Internet, which we describein detail next.
3.2.2 Attack I: Base Station DoS

             Compromised smart-phones can easily make phone calls,say using Microsoft Smart-phone SDK APIPhoneMake-Call [5], to call other phone numbers obtained from sourceslike yellow pages.The radio channel of a GSM base station with n carrierfrequencies can be completely exhausted by 8n wellcoordinatedsmart-phone zombies in the same cell initiatingcalls and using up all the time slots of a base station. Thezombies can hang up as soon as their call setups completeand then re-initiate new calls, and so on. In the case that acallee is also subverted, the callee smart-phone can be configureddeliberately not to answer the phone, occupying thetime slot at both the caller and the callee side for about oneminute in each call attempt. Since the callee does not acceptthe call, the caller would not even need to pay for thisunfinished call, despite the fact that valuable radio resource
has been allocated and wasted.The impact of this type of attacks on the availability ofthe cellular network can be significant.

            In telecom networks call blocking rate is the metric for measuring the availabilityof the network. Typically, the availability requirement fortelecom network is a call blocking rate of less than 0.01%.Telecom carriers plan for the network capability accordingto call volume statistics and obey the call blocking rate requirement.
The call blocking probability is calculated withthe Erlang B formula [1]: B(C,α) = αc/C!_Ci=0 αi/i! where C isthe number of radio channels in our context, α representsthe planned call volume to support for, and B is the callblocking probability. Typically the planned call volume isan average of 15-16 simultaneous users (i.e., α = 15.63 Erlang)and since the call blocking rate is expected to be lessthan 0.01% (B < 0.01%), a base station typically needs 4carrier frequencies and a total of 32 voice channels (8 timeslots × 4), so C = 32. Erlang B formula assumes the commontelephone behaviors – they are idle most of the timeand the traffic aggregation from many phones is highly predictable.These assumptions, however, can be easily violatedby compromised smart-phones.

             With 8 compromisedsmart-phones occupying 8 out of 32 channels, the blockingprobability rises to 1.2%; if 16 and 24 channels are occupied,the blocking rates will be as high as 16.4% and 53.6%, respectively;when all 32 channels are taken, the system will simply be out of service. This shows that even a handful ofsubverted smart-phones can jeopardize the availability of abase station.Similar attacks can be launched against GPRS. In GPRS,at most 8 time slots can be assigned to GPRS users in a basestation. The maximum data rate is at most 171 Kbps. Sucha small bandwidth capacity can be easily saturated. GPRSnetworks may assign private addresses to smart-phones dueto IPV4 address shortage and use NAT or NAPT to communicatewith the rest of the Internet. In this case, compromisedsmart-phones can actively initiate connections first,thereafter, both sides are free to send packets to each other.

3.2.3 Attack II: DDoS Attack to Call Centers

            This attack is similar to the previous one, but the goal isnot to exhaust radio resources, but to put call centers to ahalt. This is in the same spirit as the Internet DDoS attacksto web servers.Such attacks are not possible in the past with traditionaltelephones because one would have to manually dial callcenter numbers. This requires attackers to be physically colocatedwith many phones. Consequently, the attackers canbe easily traced back, caught, then legally prosecuted.For the case of smart-phone zombies, their owners aremost likely the victims rather than the attackers themselves.

             Therefore, tracing back to the true attackers becomes amuch more difficult task.Similar DDoS attacks can be launched against PSTN andcellular switches, which are designed for a limited Busy HourCall Attempts (BHCA). These switches may collapse oncethe BHCA value is out of the designed range. For example,right after terrorists’ attacks on September 11, 2001, thephone switches were under such a heavy load that it washard to call a New York resident. Similarly, a large cohortof smart-phone zombies could create the same flash-crowdeffect.Not only smart-phone DDoS attacks can cause service disruptionsand heavy financial losses, they can also jeopardizenational security by attacking the critical 911 service, leavingemergency patients not saved and accidents, crimes orterrorists’ acts not reported.

3.2.4 Attack III: Spamming

            Attackers can manipulate smart-phone zombies to sendjunk or marketing messages through SMS. In the case thatthe charging model is flat, a compromised smart-phone canspam for “free”; and therefore its owner may not even noticeits bad behavior. Free SMS spamming gives attackers goodincentives to compromise smart-phones.

            Can evenachieve impersonation. For example, an attacker can useVoice-Over-IP from the Internet and then use a smart-phonezombie as a relay point in pretending to be the smart-phoneowner for both incoming and outgoing phone calls.
3.2.6 Attack V: Remote Wiretapping

             A smart-phone zombie can also passively record the conversations of its owner with others; and then stealthily report back to some spies. Such attacks could be hard to detect since recording and reporting can be two asynchronous steps; the report traffic can even be encrypted and tunneled along with other legal Internet traffic to further evade detection. It is even difficult for the smart-phone owner to notice the spying activity. Such easy and stealthy remote wiretapping could easily become means of blackmailing and espionage activities from insider-trading to classified information extraction.

4. DEFENSE

             security and are unwilling to pay the price and inconvenience incurred by security schemes [13]. Functionality demands extensibility, and extensibility invites malicious extensions. Given the current trend, unless legislature can effectively mandate limited extensibility for smart-phones, we don’t see the hope of reducing the powerfulness and functions of a smart-phone.

Nevertheless, there are some strategies that we’d like to point out for hardening smart-phone which we discuss as follows:
• Attack surface reduction:

             One simple defense is to reduce the attack surface as much as possible. This defense mechanism has also been applied to PCs [4], but with limited success because it is disruptive to popular applications like file-sharing and network printer. Nevertheless, this mechanism may be more effective for smart-phones because the smart-phone usage model is different from that of PCs. Although a smart-phone is always on, most of its features need not be active. For example, when users make an outgoing phone call or compose a SMS message, the PC part of the smartphones can be turned off (unless instructed otherwise, say, when a user is downloading a movie).
• OS hardening:

            Smart-phone OSes can enforce some security features, such as always displaying callee’s number and lighting up LCD display when dialing. This can be achieved by only exporting security enhanced APIs to applications. With hardened OSes, unless attackers can subvert the smart-phone Owithout being noticed, attacking actions from malicious user-level code can be more easily detected by the smart-phone user.

• Hardware hardening:

            We believe one advantage we can leverage for smartphone hardening is that smart-phone already has an embedded smart-card, the SIM card. The SIM card has evolved to incorporate the use of the SIM Toolkit (STK) — an API for securely loading applications to the SIM. STK allows the mobile operator to create or provision services by loading them into the SIM card without changing anything to combine STK card and TCG’s Trusted Platform Module (TPM) [8] for smart-phone hardware hardingThis way, no additional security chips will be needed.

. 4.2 Internet Side Protection

            The malware defense mechanisms that have been deployed or proposed for the Internet can be readily applied to smartphones. For example, more rigorous process in software patching or vulnerability-driven network traffic shielding [22] will certainly strengthen the defense for smart-phones for known vulnerabilities, though not unknown ones. It would be desirable for smart-phone Internet service providers to ensure that devices that access them are properly patched or shielded — unpatched or unshielded ones should not be exposed to the wild Internet. Currently, majority of smart phones access the Internet through telecom data networks such as GPRS or CDMA1X. In this scenario, base stations can first check whether smart-phones have been properly patched or shielded and they will be forced to patch or shield if not. Alternatively, base stations could even perform shielding on behalf of the smart-phones. This kind of strategy, however, faces challenges when smart-phones use 802.11 access points for Internet connectivity: many 802.11 access points have already been deployed, it would be very difficult, if possible at all, to upgrade all the access points to enforce patching or shielding. Further, such quarantining makes seamless handoff between access networks very challenging. This is an open research question. In any case, the weakest link points to smart-phone users, who may be fooled to download a piece of malicious code (masquerading as a pirated movie) that takes the advantage of the interoperability feature of smart-phones to attack telecommunication networks.

Smart Phone Apps

According to a survey conducted by one of the leading mobile phone companies, over half of the millions of phones in circulation in the UK are smart phones.

Smart Phones have a very unique attribute which is the ability to make use of Mobile Apps.

Mobile Phone Apps create a greater user experience and can be a huge source of viral marketing for any business.

At CloudNex Media, we not only specialise in developing apps but also put a powerful campaign behind it to send it viral all over the Internet.

Mobile Apps could also serve as fantastic gifts to sway clients into your selling funnel. For this purpose, we would create apps in an online gaming manner.

Our team of mobile apps developers will analyse your business from a customer’s perspective to understand the kind of application your audience will most likely connect with.

Common apps include:
- Geo-location services: such as ‘Find My Nearest’ etc…
– Vouchers, Coupons and similar promotional items
– Photo submission service
– Online booking and reservation systems
– Website resize providing better usability (tailored to smart phones)
– Live News and Feeds
– Games and other entertainments
– Radio and videos

- See more at: http://www.cloudnexmedia.com/smart-phone-apps/#sthash.spqjNfIw.dpuf

SmartPhoness

Burn out. You’ve felt it. Perhaps you’re feeling it right now. Overworked. Exhausted. The stack of papers is piling up on your desk and the deadlines are looming, but you just can’t seem to find the energy or the creativity to do what you must. The well has run dry. You thought telecommuting a day or two a week would help—skipping the hour-long commute, working in your PJs, maybe even writing on the back porch in the cool morning hours—but for some reason, you feel worse and there is no oasis in sight. You even tried taking a staycation, but because you spent more time on your iPhone with your coworkers managing emails than you did with your family, the relaxation you frantically sought slipped through your fingers. What’s wrong with this picture? Are you sabotaging your work-life balance without even realizing it?

You aren’t detaching from the office because your smartphone is an electronic leashSmartphones are undeniably convenient. All those pretty, shiny apps staring brightly up at you, begging for interface. Or perhaps it’s the blinking red light that never shuts off, nagging you, creating an ongoing sense of guilt that you should be “on call.” The alerts and alarms may have once made you feel connected and techno-savvy, but tending to your phone’s every chime and buzz has become an exhausting, engrained habit. Worse, you bring your smartphone with you everywhere.
What you can do about it: Turn it off. Really. At a prescribed time each night, turn off your mobile phone. It will be painful at first, but your family will thank you for it.

You’re playing when you should be working or working when you should be playingLog off Facebook. Walk away from the water cooler. If you find that 10:00 turns into lunchtime before you’ve done a thing, it’s time to revisit your time management skills. There are an infinite number of time wasters available out there—both online and off—and if you don’t monitor and moderate the time you spend indulging them, your productivity will quickly take a nosedive.
What you can do about it: Compartmentalize. Save socialization for early morning coffees and happy hours after work when you can really enjoy it, and limit your hallway conversations to two or three minutes (unless it’s your boss, of course). Don’t fall prey to those who want to pull you into their own time-wasting vortex; this includes chatty IMs and emails. Limit social media surfing to personal time unless you’re using it to promote your business through social channels

Has the Number of Smart Phones Tripled

In the U.S. the number of Smart Phones used have nearly tripled according to Red Eye Chicago. So more iPhones, Blackberries, and T-Mobile’s new G1 are on the street. According to statistics, 8% of Americans owned smart phones in July 2007. 22% of Americans owned smart phones in July 2008.

The trend for smart phones these days offer desktop-like experiences full with high speed Internet, email, keyboard, mobile applications, music, video, digital camera and more. The top trend though is the beloved touch screen. We’ve rounded up the top 3:

The Ever-Changing Face of Smartphones

Smartphones have become more than just portable telephones; to many of us they are now personal planners, address books, micro-tablets with anywhere, anytime internet access, and even hold our photo albums and music collections in some cases.

You can see people checking their business emails, taking down notes, recording voice memos and, on increasingly rare occasions, you might actually see someone make a call using their phone.

Contracts incorporate free minutes of talk time, free text messages and free megabytes of data downloads – and with premium downloadable content, paid-for apps, multimedia messaging and so on, there are plenty of ways to go beyond the confines of your contract.

So what is it that keeps our appetite for old mobile phone recycling so voracious? Why don’t we find one make or model and stick with it until it breaks completely?

The answer is simply that technology progresses – and you only have to look at the market leader, and one of the relative newcomers, for examples of just how fast smartphones are evolving.

Apple’s iPhone has dominated the market for several years, but has gone through plenty of changes in that time.

The first generation was launched back in 2007, and development has continued at a brisk pace ever since. In summer 2008 the iPhone 3G was launched, followed a year later by the iPhone 3GS.

The iPhone 4 and 4S followed in summer 2010 and autumn 2011, while the iPhone 5 appeared in autumn 2012, less than a year after the death of Apple’s innovator and brand guru, Steve Jobs.

Over at Nokia, long-time leaders of the mobile phone market, smartphones have always stayed exclusively out of reach of the formerly dominant brand, but the recent introduction of the Nokia Lumia range has been well received by critics.

The first generation of Nokia Lumia consisted of two models, the high-end Lumia 800 and the more affordable Lumia 710, the latter available to UK customers from early 2012.

Two more models were launched in April 2012 – the high-end Lumia 900 and, again, a more affordable alternative, the Lumia 610.

A third release, comprising the Lumia 510, added to the line-up’s entry-level options in late 2012, but it was the second generation of Nokia Lumia phones, launched around the same time, that really made headlines for the manufacturer as the first of its phones to run the Windows Phone 8 operating system.

Nokia are far from reclaiming their position as market leaders, but the Lumia range has been generally well received; and for every person who upgrades to a new model, there’s usually an older phone that needs disposing of, but which might still have plenty of life left in it.

This is where the second-hand market really comes from; still-desirable smartphones that, for their current owner, no longer serve their needs. And as more generations of the market’s most popular handsets continue to hit the stands, the previously owned secondary market should continue to thrive too.

HTC

In previous years manufacturers have used Mobile World Congress to announce their big new products, but many of the surprises were spoiled by the time MWC opened its doors because they’d been revealed in the weeks leading up to the show. 

That was a little disappointing, but while bereft of ground-shaking announcements there were still many smartphones being demonstrated so we were never short of things to see.

Almost every company had at several handsets up and running (some with a mind-boggling selection) so this is set to be an extremely busy year, particularly for Android. To help narrow down the choice if you’re in the market for an upgrade, here’s our pick of the five best smartphones at MWC 2013.

HTC One

Announced a week before MWC, the HTC One was unusually the only handset being demoed by the firm at the conference, which will give you some idea of this device’s importance to HTC.

They’ve gone all out here. The beautiful unibody aluminium shell puts the plastic Galaxy S3 to shame, feels more like a premium product than the Sony Xperia Z and reaches Apple levels of build quality and attention to detail.

Also nice to see that HTC resisted the temptation to slap on a 5-inch-plus display. The One uses a large, but not cumbersome, 4.7-inch screen and doesn’t skimp on quality; it’s a Full HD 1080p LCD with razor-sharp 468 ppi pixel depth.

Smart Phone

Though Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has announced its alliance with Microsoft to roll out phones running on Windows Phone 7 OS, the launch of Nokia X7-00 showcases that all is not lost for Symbian. In the highly competitive smartphone market, Nokia has seen its market share crumbling and therefore it has tried utmost to equip X7 with features which makes this phone standout among the rest. Check out the review of Nokia X7-00 to know more about this smartphone from Nokia.

Nokia X7 – Looks And Design

The phone robust on hand thanks to its stainless steel body. It measures 119.7 x 62.8 x 11.9 mm which makes it slip in most of the pockets pretty easily. The phone is quite heavy weighing 147 grams. The brushed stainless steel finish of the phone and its distinctive lines gives the phone a contemporary look. The angular shape of the device will help anyone to easily grip it and the angular back of the phone further enhances its grip. If you are looking for a smartly construed smartphone than Nokia X7 will surly impress you.

Nokia X7-00 Display

Nokia X7 boasts of an amazing 4 inches AMOLED display which is capable of displaying 16 M colors of resolution measuring 360 x 640 pixels. It is one of the brightest AMOLED screens you will find and the viewing angles of the display are great. The colors displayed are quite sharp and vivid. The screen is made up of gorilla glass which protects it from spills and smudges. The display is also equipped with proximity and accelerometer sensors. On the either side of the screen you will find an earpiece and a menu key while on the top of the screen you will find you will find the power key.

Nokia X7-00 FeaturesOne of the major features of Nokia X7 operating system is its me. The phone runs on Symbian Anna OS qual face features lacking in the Symbian OS. Nokia X7 this helps a great deal to stay in the competition. At the Same time the phone runs Several in-built applications Such as Quickoffice document viewer, Adobe Reader, Flash Lite 4.0 and many more.Nokia X7-00 Specs

The phone offers solid storage as it comes with an 8 GB integrated memory card. The memory can be increased to 32 GB with the help of a microSD card. One of the disappointing aspects of the device is its processor. It runs on the 680 MHz ARM 11 processor which by no means matches up to the performance of the dual-core processors. For Nokia X7-00 full specifications.

Nokia X7-00 Keyboard

The phone is equipped with a portrait QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard works fine in split screen and despite the small size of the keys, one can easily type using the keys of the keyboard. The keyboard facilitates sending sms and mails.

Nokia X7-00 Gallery

The gallery of the phone is an updated one and the photographs are displayed are in grid manner and thanks to the in-built accelerometer you can easily opt between landscape and portrait mode. At the same time you can select multiple photos, but the images can be shared only via MMS, Bluetooth or email as there is the absence of image sharing integration.

Nokia X7-00 Camera Quality

The camera is equipped with a 8MP camera which is capable of clicking of pictures of resolution measuring 264 x 2448 pixels. One of the big drawbacks of the camera is the lack of autofocus. The dual-LED flash of the camera helps to click sharp pictures in dim light. The images provide a good amount of details but when you are taking close up shots you will definitely miss the autofocus feature.

Nokia X7-00 VideoThe phone is Capable of Recording videos at 720p @ 25 fps. The video player is Capable of Recording videos of Various formats and Most Played the videos are very smooth.

Nokia X7-00 Connectivity And Multimedia

Nokia X7 is boasts of all kinds of connectivity. The phone supports both 2G and 3G network along with support for GPRS and EDGE. 3G connectivity is extremely quick with 10.2 Mbps downlink and 2 Mbps uplink. The phone also has a USB 2.0 port along with a microUSB port which charges the phone. Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n helps you to easily share local files and folders.

We were a bit disappointed to find out that there is no microHDMI port in the phone. Thanks to Symbian Anna, the web browser performs brilliantly and offers pretty nice features. Nokia X7 is equipped with an FM radio with RDS which has RDS support. The radio automatically scans the nearby stations.

Nokia X7-00 Battery Life

The phone is equipped with a Li-ion 1200 mAH (BL -5K) battery which offers a talk time of around 6 hours when the phone is operated on 2G and 4 hours when operated on 3G.

Nokia X7-00 B Price

Price for Nokia X7-00 is USA is around $ 500 while Nokia X7-00 India price is approximately Rs 24,000.

Nokia X7 is a solid device with robust specs. If you happen to be a Nokia lover, than you will surly love Nokia X7. Nokia X7 is one of the best Symbian phones and if you are looking for a solid Symbian phone, then you can look forward to Nokia X7.

- See more at: http://www.koolmobiles.com/nokia-x7-00-review-and-specifications.html#sthash.XZviRAV6.dpuf

Philips W732 Android smartphone with 2,400 mAh battery promises 13 hrs of talk, 10.5 hrs browsing time,

Remember Philips? Apparently, it’s still around in the mobile world. What’s more, it’s joined the Android club it seems. Once again, we might add, since we’ve seen some Android devices come from the company in 2009.

That was a long time ago, and the upcoming Philips W732 is a decent device, forgettable name aside. The main advertised feature in its case seems to be the 2,400 mAh battery. Alongside some intelligent power saving built into the device by its maker, this enables 13 hours of continuous talk time on one charge, and, perhaps more importantly in this day and age, 10.5 hours of Web browsing. While the talk time isn’t in RAZR MAXX territory, or even close to the Galaxy S III‘s numbers on 2G, if the Web browsing figures are at least close in reality to what Philips is saying, then this will be the longest lasting smartphone in the world by that measure.

That’s probably thanks in no small part to an LCD IPS touchscreen. Virtually all recently-launched high-end smartphones (except the HTC One X, but that has a small battery instead) have AMOLED touchscreens. And while those consume much less energy than conventional LCD screens when displaying the color black (and dark images, and so on), the situation is reversed when browsing the Web. That’s because an AMOLED screen consumes the most when it has to display the color white (or light backgrounds or images). Since white backgrounds are pretty much the norm on the World Wide Web, all AMOLED-equipped phones do pretty bad when it comes to Web browsing times.

In one battery life test, the RAZR MAXX was only able to accomplish 7 hours and 23 minutes of continuous Web browsing, despite its massive 3,300 mAh battery. As a comparison, its talk time was a pretty incredible 20 hours and 24 minutes on one charge. That’s the AMOLED screen’s fault, plain and simple.

The Philips W732′s display is a 4.3-inch 480×800 unit. The smartphone runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It comes with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, a 1 GHz single-core MediaTek MT6575 processor, a 5 MP camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Additionally, the Philips W732 has hot-swappable dual-SIM support. Its dimensions are 126.37 x 67.44 x 12.3 mm, and it weighs 166.5 grams.