Potential threat to speech privacy via smartphone motion sensors

/in /by

Could smartphone motion sensors be used by cybercriminals to record speech? It is a question that many academic and industry researchers are working to answer in order to ward off this kind of malicious use before it happens.

Recent studies suggest security flaws and sensitivities to low-frequency audio signals, such as human speech, in accelerometers and gyroscopes could allow cybercriminals to collect confidential information such as credit card numbers and Social Security numbers as users speak into or near a mobile device.

UAB says that while some studies have revealed the ability to use motion sensor data and algorithms to decipher passwords and PINs entered on touchscreens, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have found that motion sensors may pose a threat to speech privacy only in limited scenarios.

Read More from Homeland Security Newswire Here

How spies can use your cellphone to find you – and eavesdrop on your calls and texts, too

/in /by

Surveillance systems that track the locations of cellphone users and spy on their calls, texts and data streams are being turned against Americans as they roam the country and the world, say security experts and U.S. officials.

Federal officials acknowledged the privacy risk to Americans in a previously undisclosed letter from the Department of Homeland Security to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) last week, saying they had received reports that “nefarious actors may have exploited” global cellular networks “to target the communications of American citizens.”

The letter, dated May 22 and obtained by The Washington Post, described surveillance systems that tap into a global messaging system that allows cellular customers to move from network to network as they travel. The decades-old messaging system, called SS7, has little security, allowing intelligence agencies and some criminal gangs to spy on unwitting targets — based on nothing more than their cellphone numbers.

“I don’t think most Americans realize how insecure U.S. telephone networks are,” Wyden said in a statement. “If more consumers knew how easy it is for bad guys to track or hack their mobile phones, they would demand the FCC and wireless companies do something about it. These aren’t just hypotheticals.”

Read More from The Washington Post Here

The Supreme Court Is Stubbornly Analog — By Design

/in /by

The Supreme Court is an openly — even proudly — technophobic institution. Cameras are forbidden, which means there are no images or videos from high-profile cases, and briefs and other legal filings only recently became available at the court’s website. Chief Justice John Roberts argued in 2014 that these Luddite tendencies are just part of the legal system: “The courts will always be prudent whenever it comes to embracing the ‘next big thing.’” The justices — who communicate mostly on paper, rather than via email — can sometimes seem as analog as the institution they serve. There was the moment when in a 2014 case about cell phone privacy, Justice Samuel Alito asked what would happen if a suspect were carrying personal information on a “compact disc.” That same year, Justice Stephen Breyer was ribbed for spinning out an extended hypothetical about a “phonograph record store.”

There are systemic reasons for the court’s reluctant approach to technology — American law is a backward-looking enterprise even outside the highest court. But regardless of why it’s happening, legal scholars say the consequences are clear: When Supreme Court justices lack an understanding of what technology means for the lives of the people affected by their decisions, they will struggle to respond effectively to technological change.

Read More from fivethirtyeight.com Here

Senate Panel to Examine T-Mobile-Sprint Merger in Late June

/in /by

The chief executives of T-Mobile and Sprint are reportedly likely to testify before a Senate panel about their companies’ potential merger late next month.

Officials told Reuters that T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure would probably appear before the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, which scheduled a hearing on the pending $26.5 billion deal for June 27.

Legere and Claure also met with officials from the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission about the deal earlier this month, according to the report.

Company officials argue the merger would allow the carriers to save billions in costs, as well as benefit the economy as whole once a new, combined company begins deploying next-generation networks.

Read More from Wireless Week Here

Jury Says Samsung Must Pay $539M for Copying Parts of iPhone

/in /by

A jury has decided Samsung must pay Apple $539 million in damages for illegally copying some of the iPhone’s features to lure people into buying its competing products.

The verdict reached Thursday is the latest twist in a legal battle that began in 2011. Apple contends Samsung wouldn’t have emerged as the world’s leading seller of smartphones if it hadn’t ripped off the technology powering the pioneering iPhone in developing a line of similar devices running on Google’s Android software.

Previous rulings had already determined that Samsung infringed on some of Apple’s patents, but the amount of damages owed has been hanging in legal limbo. Another jury convened for a 2012 trial had determined Samsung should pay Apple $1.05 billion, but U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh reduced that amount to $548 million.

The issue escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court , which determined in 2016 that a lower court needed to re-examine $399 million of the $548 million. That ruling was based on the concept that the damages shouldn’t be based on all the profits that the South Korean electronics giant rung up from products that copied the iPhone because its infringement may only have violated a few patents.

Read More from Wireless Week Here