App-phone Vulnerabilities Continue to Surface as Western Marketshare Grows
North America is quickly catching up to Asia and Europe in terms of app-phone market share. As a result we are quickly encountering the same problems these countries have experiences with SMS Trojans for several years now.
As app-phones have been designed for easy of development, with security being almost an afterthought, malware writers have found this an obvious evolution of their activities. Currently, a new SMS Trojan has been noticed with limited infections targeting users several European and Western countries, including Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK. This Android Trojan has a couple of functions, each designed to deceive the user and run up charges on the bill. The infection accomplishes this by sending out and receiving SMS messages to premium SMS numbers and hiding the texts before the system can display or alert to user to their presence.
The unpolished security of virtually all app-phones on the market today, is a large factor in the spread of these types of malicious programs. However, an equally large part is due user negligence. A closed, locked-in market filled with an overwhelming number of similar applications leave little time to inexperienced users to sort out legitimate applications from the cruft. More over, many of the natural forces that allowed open app markets catering smart phones of generations past, no longer function to weed out substandard software.
Wrist Communicator
That person on the bus may not be late for his appointment after all. SMS Technology Australia has started production on its M500 line of GSM watches. The M500 is a classy looking square faced watch that runs on quad mode GSM technology. It features a 1.5 inch color touch screen, 128 MB of memory for contacts and files, and full sms support. While it does play MP3/AAC and MP4 video, my strong suspicion is these are use with contact identifying queues. USB support for recharging and utilizes U disk Technology. Communication is apparently through Bluetooth to a wireless headset.
All in all, I think that the phone looks rather nice, but I am not sure how many people will be hopping on this fashion item. Additionally, SMS recently announce the M501 Ladies watch.
