Posts Tagged ‘security’

Phones 4U turn the tables on shop window security

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

Did you read my post from last Monday about Phones 4U’s shockingly bad store layout that showed their customer’s details to passers-by? Well, Phones 4U must have because by Thursday last week they had shuffled their point of sale tables around to give their customers a much safer experience. The sales monitors do still face into the store but that’s a much easier place to spot nosy loiterers!

In fact, it took me longer to get my act together to take some photos of the new layout than it did for the Phones 4U staff to fix their issue. Well done :)

It can’t just be me that sees these things, can it? Have you noticed any silly lack of planning on at your local phone retailer?

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Phones 4U offer a window into their customer details

Monday, September 1st, 2008

You’d be shocked and appalled if I told you that every time I browsed the Phones 4U website they showed me the personal details of the customer currently placing an order wouldn’t you?

Well at least twice a day I walk past what would appear to be the flagship Phones 4U store on Tottenham Court Road and most days I’m treated to an unobstructed view of some poor normob’s personal details. Name, address, phone number; it’s all there in plain sight as they cross their fingers and hope they pass the credit check for that shiny new device perched on the desk in front of them.

(For the non-Londoners: Tottenham Court Road, or TCR is traditionally where people go to buy high-tech goods although in recent years it’s popularity has dwindled somewhat.)

When I strolled past the other day and took some snaps with my N95 at lunchtime nobody was actually buying a handset, which is fortunate really as I couldn’t in good conscience post a photo of some poor unwitting sap’s home address on the Internet.

So yes, that photo you see on the left is one of at least five points of sale desks with the salesman’s monitor facing out into one of the busiest streets in London just a few strides away from the exit of one of London’s busiest tube stations (the prime real estate directly outside the exit is actually taken up with a very well designed and stylish Carphone Warehouse).

Now, as you’ll notice the N95 didn’t do a great job of capturing the text on the salesman’s screen.  But a 1080p high-definition camera such as the one we use for the MIR Show would easily pick up all the information on the screen.

I’m sure the Information Commissioner’s Office would have something to say about this.

In the meantime, if you really must purchase a phone from a high street store, I recommend going into the operator’s own shop or buying online… speaking of which, I always buy from the operator’s website but does anyone have any experiences to share from using a third party website to order their contract handsets?

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Posted in Devices | Comments

All is definitely not well with Apple

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Every once a while, there comes across a day in your life and things start going haywire enough to make you wonder what did you do wrong to deserve that day. Today, it turns out, is such a day for our very own Steve Jobs.

Not too long after we reported that the Apple Ads which claimed that the iPhone could access ‘all the parts of the internet’ have been taken off air in the UK, comes news about serious flaw that exists in the iPhone firmware 2.0.2. Publishing houses tell us that locking your iPhone with a 4-digit code is not safe at all. In fact, all it takes to gain access to all the private and confidential data stored on the iPhone is one tap on the screen and pressing the home button twice.

So far, the flaw is found to exist only in firmware 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 for the iPhone. Once a user taps the home button twice, he gains access to the phone’s ‘favorites’ and can thus dial any number he wants. Not just that, browsing a little more gives access to the phone’s Address Book and even mail. Imagine the horror when a random user has access to all your emails.

So far, the only work around available is to goto your Settings >> General >> Home Button and then set the option to select ‘Home’. Of course, I’d rather take care of my iPhone well enough. So, what now? Do we see a 2.0.4 right away? Or will it be 2.1 when Apple feels the time is right?

I wonder what Dan has to say.

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Use your iPhone for home security.

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

I was just browsing around the internet looking for something to do with the iPhone. I’ll admit, for the most part I wasn’t impressed until I came across Mobiscope.

I’m not a security conscious person, and nor am I one to want to set up a webcam with it’s own I.P address so I can follow it wherever I may be; however for those of you out there who like this ability to remotely spy, Mobiscope might just be the thing for you!

For a one time fee of $29.50 (roughly £15), you can have complete unlimited access to the service. With this you get “motion detection alerts over email” and you can “Start recording when motion is detected”.

Although not an interested customer myself, I see the potential for this. For example, spying on Babysitters, or Nannies, or whomever you may entrust children with; this could be an ideal device if you’re particularly worried. Or how about you want to ensure your employees are working hard? Well, check up on the webcam stream on your iPhone of course!

Or maybe, you’re on Holiday? (Let’s forget about roaming fees here), but you can spy on your house to ensure no one has stolen all of your lovely possessions. Although, I fear that idea may be slightly flawed, as a thief may probably head straight for your computer thus ending your connection.

But even if you don’t want to “spy” as I have named it, you could always make use of the hundreds (if not more) security webcam streams on the internet, or even the “picturesque” webcams. There are plenty of open links out there that you can sit and watch for hours.

I’ve been testing the “Trial” version of this, and I’m quite impressed with the speed, and picture quality. Admittedly, I haven’t actually been able to use it on the iPhone as of yet, but if it’s anything like what I am able to see now, then it’s pretty amazing.  When I can, I’ll get it working, and see if I can hook up my own links, and see how good it really is!

So is this a new era of security? I don’t want to make any predictions here, but the way cameras and computers have decreased or let’s say “blemished” our trust levels, I think this may be so. As much as I think this is definitely a cool application, that has plenty of potential, I’m quite sad to say that we even have to resort to it.

More importantly, do you think there is any future in mobile video security?

Send any questions or anything really to samantha@smstextnews.com

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Posted in Applications, Mobile, Mobile Applications, Mobile Services, People, iPhone | Comments

Crime, in the US, fraid not. Have you tried Europe?

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Growing up I was forced to watch a lot of the series Due South.  My mother and sister both fancied the Mountie.

Aside from slightly mentally scarring me for life the series taught me one thing - Canadians are lovely people that never commit crime.

And it’s true, according to the mobile companies, nobody steals handsets in the great northern expanse of land.  But, for some bizarre reason the US mobile companies have the same opinion of Americans.  That’s just silly.

The Register has reported on the exasperation of Pete Gillespie who has had two mobiles stolen and not once has his Canadian operator, Roger’s Wireless, been able to put a block on the handset.

The company said it simply doesn’t do that - talent.  Nor does it trace where the phone is using GPS.

According to the Reg, this is nothing special for the US.  Europe may have implemented IMEI blacklisting years ago but US and Canadian providers continue to ignore the practice.

“Presently, we don’t have any North American operators connected to our [IMEI blacklist] database,” says James Moran, fraud and security director of the GSM Association (GSMA). “When we’ve raised the issue with these operators in the past, what they’ve said is that handset theft has not been an issue North America - or least not to the same degree it has been in Europe and the rest of the world.”

Maybe the US didn’t have the lovable gangs of pick pockets like in Oliver.

A quick check of my Rough Guide to San Francisco, one of the least crime ridden areas of the US, suggests otherwise.  “The biggest problem for most travelers is the threat of mugging”.  Even the accompanying picture suggests that pick pockets are rife.

It just seems odd that the US, which could easily be described as having a crime problem hasn’t yet done anything about this.

Still, you’d better pick a [phon] pocket or two boys.  You’d better pick a pocket or two.

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India counting down to BlackBerry ban?

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

If you’ve got a BlackBerry, you might want to hold off taking it on holiday to India for a while. According to Reuters, representatives from the country’s mobile operators are meeting with government officials to discuss the possible security implications around RIM’s mobile email service. Apparently, the government is so concerned, the idea of a BlackBerry ban has been floated.

Reuters add that Indian security agencies want RIM to provide the government with all the necessary algorithms to break the encryption used by the BlackBerry, while The Business Standard suggests that if the algorithms aren’t delivered, RIM could find itself cut off from the end of March.

It’s not the first time RIM has found itself under the microscope over security concerns and even threatened with a ban, but this is thought to be the first time that it’s been asked to hand over its encryption keys. It’ll be interesting to see whether RIM would rather hand over the goods or keep its crown jewels safe and face being locked out of a massive market.

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Posted in Mobile Applications | Comments

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