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Apple iTunes flaw 'allowed government spying for 3 years'
A British company called Gamma International marketed hacking software to governments that exploited the vulnerability via a bogus update to iTunes, Apple's media player, which is installed on more than 250 million machines worldwide.
The hacking software, FinFisher, is used to spy on intelligence targets’ computers. It is known to be used by British agencies and earlier this year records were discovered in abandoned offices of that showed it had been offered to Egypt’s feared secret police.
Apple was informed about the relevant flaw in iTunes in 2008, according to Brian Krebs, a security writer, but did not patch the software until earlier this month, a delay of more than three years.
November 28th 2011
Most Phones Ship With "Rootkit"
According to a developer on the XDA forums, TrevE, many Android, Nokia, and BlackBerry smartphones have software called Carrier IQ that allows your carrier full access into your handset, including keylogging, which apps have been run, URLs that have been loaded in the browser, etc."
November 17th 2011
Our Brave New World Of Snitches And Surveillance
by Zen Gardner
The tech industry giants continue to dutifully "lead the way" into a suffocating surveillance state in collusion with the nasty likes of the NSA, FBI, CIA, TSA and the DHS..to name a "phew". (Almost ran out of letters. Notice they're almost always 3?...hmmm. The Masons wouldn't have anything to do with all this, would they?)
This time a "non-profit group Parking Mobility, created by George Soros-funded organizations, created the Android, Blackberry and iPhone parking ticket app which encourages cities to adopt the program because they can "generate revenue." As if our well-being was the purpose for this indoctrination into self-policing. I mean, c'mon.
November 14th 2011
Police Device Used To Steal Your Cell Phone Data During Traffic Stop
You may have heard about the Cellebrite cell phone extraction device (UFED) in the news lately. It gives law enforcement officials the ability to access all the information on your cell phone within a few short minutes. When it became known that Michigan State Police had been using the tool to access cell phones during traffic stops, it raised concern with the ACLU. Now, everyone is wondering if cops will be using devices like this elsewhere. Will this new law enforcement tool be abused, or will it be used responsibly in the pursuit of justice?
Stingray' Phone Tracker and the violation of the 4th Amendment
Death of Privacy: 'Your cell phone Big Brother's best friend'
Police Can Track Your Cell in Real Time
In a case more interesting for its look at the state of modern tracking technology and the brave new world we all live in than for its legal ramifications, a Florida appeals court said Wednesday the police didn't violate a drug dealer's rights when they used his cell phone to pinpoint his whereabouts as he drove across the state.
While the legal outcome of the case may catch some people off guard (any idea how close the government can get to your cell phone with GPS?), the legal issue breaks no new ground. The question in the case has already been answered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Privacy For Sale: iPhone 4 hackers open password marketplace
A huge source of personal data in the palm of your hand - that's what a smartphone has become nowadays. But all the private information kept on your hi-tech device can easily become public knowledge
 Since the days when cell phones were the size of bricks, there has been debate over the safety of these devices, which use radio waves to transmit voice and data.A number of studies, stretching back more than a decade, have suggested extended cell phone exposure increases the risk of tumors and can harm human reproduction. The industry staunchly defends the safety of mobile phones, saying the studies' conclusions are unfounded.
Now, a group of international researchers meeting in Istanbul, Turkey has released what they call “stunning proof” that confirms findings from the Council of Europe -- pulsed digital signals from cell phones disrupt DNA, impair brain function and lower sperm count.
A meeting convened by Environmental Health Trust, with the Turkish cancer society, and Gazi University, revealed the new research that the scientists say shows damage to DNA, brain and sperm
iPhones and Android phones building vast databases for Google and Apple
 Apple and Google are using smartphones running their software to build gigantic databases for location-based services, according to new research following the Guardian's revelations that iPhones and devices running Android collect location data about owners' movements.
iPhones and Android smartphones swap data – which does not contain information directly identifying the user or the phone – back and forth with their respective companies if the user agrees to use "location services".
The news has led some European governments to announce investigations into whether Apple is breaking privacy laws.
Samy Kamkar, a hacker and researcher, has shown that Android phones, which run on software written by Google, collect the location data every few seconds and store it in a local file, but also transmit it to Google several times an hour.
This functionality is almost certainly used in any phone that provides mapping services, meaning that similar files will exist in some form on all smartphones, including those from Nokia and BlackBerry-maker RIM. It is not known whether these models synchronise data from the phone to the companies' servers as well as storing it locally on the handset.
State Police can suck data out of cell phones in under two minutesta
The ACLU was quoted a half million dollars as the cost of FOIA request documents to determine if the Michigan State Police are violating Fourth Amendment rights when using high-tech mobile forensic devices to suck out cell phone data in under two minutes.
You don't want to be pulled over by the police in Michigan. When law enforcement wants half a million dollars to produce documents for a FOIA request, something is not right. And since the high-tech mobile forensic device in question can grab data in one-and-a-half minutes off more than 3,000 different cell phone models, it could be used during minor traffic violations to conduct suspicionless and warrantless searches without the phone owner having any idea that all their phone data was now in the hands of authorities.
How to See the Secret Tracking Data in Your iPhone
 Coverage of the iPhone tracking "feature" has ranged from concern to outrage. "I don't know about you, but the fact that this feature exists on an iPhone is a deal-killer," wrote PCMag Columnist John Dvorak, shortly after news broke. PCMag Executive Editor Dan Costa drew a softer line, writing, "Apple may not be actively tracking you, but it did turn your phone into a tracking device without telling you."
As frustrating as it is to learn that your iPhone has been spying on you, collecting an unencrypted treasure trove of your travels, the truth is we knew this was happening. Last June we reported thatApple updated its privacypolicy, stating that it could, "collect, use, and share precise location data, including real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device." How precise that location data is remains in question. What is clear, however, is that the update arrived alongside the release of iOS 4—the OS affected by the tracking feature—and identified the four devices (iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPad with 3G) affected by the tracking feature
THE BIG APPLE IS WATCHING YOU!
iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go
 Security researchers have discovered that Apple's iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner's computer when the two are synchronised.
The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone's recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner's movements using a simple program.
For some phones, there could be almost a year's worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple's iOS 4 update to the phone's operating system, released in June 2010.
"Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you've been," said Pete Warden, one of the researchers.
Only the iPhone records the user's location in this way, say Warden and Alasdair Allan, the data scientists who discovered the file and are presenting their findings at the Where 2.0 conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. "Alasdair has looked for similar tracking code in [Google's] Android phones and couldn't find any," said Warden. "We haven't come across any instances of other phone manufacturers doing this."
Protecting your cell phone
Is Wi-Fi frying our brains? Fears that cloud of 'electrosmog' could be harming humans
 As winter arrives with a vengeance, the last of this year’s glorious autumn leaves are falling in our parks and woodlands.
But this week came worrying evidence that Mother Nature is not the only force denuding our trees of their foliage.
Research in the Netherlands suggested that outbreaks of bleeding bark and dying leaves which have blighted the country’s urban trees may be caused by radiation from the Wi-Fi networks now so integral to life in offices, schools and homes.
As a qualified electronics engineer, I am not surprised by such findings. I have long been concerned about the harmful effects of the electro-magnetic radiation emitted not only by Wi-Fi devices but many other common modern gadgets, including mobile and cordless phones, wireless games consoles and microwave ovens.
Much though I love trees, and worrying though I find this research, what really unnerves me is the effect these electro-magnetic fields (or EMFs) are having on humans, surrounding us as they do with a constant cloud of ‘electrosmog’.
I am no Luddite. When I started work in the 1960s, I was involved in building walkie-talkies. I thought they were just brilliant and that electronic technology would save the world. But over the decades since, my scientific background has made it impossible for me to ignore the overwhelming evidence about the damage wreaked by this electrosmog.
Should You Be Snuggling With Your Cellphone?
 WARNING: Holding a cellphone against your ear may be hazardous to your health. So may stuffing it in a pocket against your body.
I’m paraphrasing here. But the legal departments of cellphone manufacturers slip a warning about holding the phone against your head or body into the fine print of the little slip that you toss aside when unpacking your phone. Apple, for example, doesn’t want iPhones to come closer than 5/8 of an inch; Research In Motion, BlackBerry’s manufacturer, is still more cautious: keep a distance of about an inch.
The warnings may be missed by an awful lot of customers. The United States has 292 million wireless numbers in use, approaching one for every adult and child, according to C.T.I.A.-The Wireless Association, the cellphone industry’s primary trade group. It says that as of June, about a quarter of domestic households were wireless-only.
 Mobile phone firms have been accused of concealing warnings about the health risks of using their handsets.
A warning that Apple’s popular iPhone should be kept at least 15mm away from the body is buried deep inside the manual.
BlackBerry goes even further, saying customers should use their devices hands-free or keep them an inch from the body ‘including the abdomen of pregnant women and the lower abdomen of teenagers’. Again, this advice is hidden in the instruction booklet.
 T-Mobile told a federal judge Wednesday it may pick and choose which text messages to deliver on its network in a case weighing whether wireless carriers have the same “must carry” obligations as wire-line telephone providers.
The Bellevue, Washington-based wireless service is being sued by a texting service claiming T-Mobile stopped servicing its “short code” clients after it signed up a California medical marijuana dispensary. In a court filing, T-Mobile said it had the right to pre-approve EZ Texting’s clientele, which it said the New York-based texting service failed to submit for approval.
EZ Texting offers a short code service, which works like this: A church could send its schedule to a cell phone user who texted “CHURCH” to 313131. Mobile phone users only receive text messages from EZ Texting’s customers upon request. Each of its clients gets their own special word.
Time/CNN's Captain Obvious Asks: Have Cell Phones Become Personal Tracking Devices?
The law is unclear about how easy it should be for the government to get its hands on this locational data — which can reveal whether you've been going to church, attending a Tea Party rally, spending the night at a date's house or visiting a cancer-treatment center. A federal appeals court ruled last week that in some cases the government may need a search warrant. And while that's a step forward, it's not good enough. The rule should be that the government always needs a warrant to access your cell-phone records and obtain data about where you have been. (See TIME's cell-phone-radiation report card.)
Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware
 It looks like Apple, Inc., is exploring a new business opportunity: spyware and what we're calling "traitorware." While users were celebrating the new jailbreaking and unlocking exemptions, Apple was quietly preparing to apply for a patent on technology that, among other things, would allow Apple to identify and punish users who take advantage of those exemptions or otherwise tinker with their devices. This patent application does nothing short of providing a roadmap for how Apple can — and presumably will — spy on its customers and control the way its customers use Apple products. As Sony-BMG learned, spying on your customers is bad for business. And the kind of spying enabled here is especially creepy — it's not just spyware, it's "traitorware," since it is designed to allow Apple to retaliate against you if you do something Apple doesn't like.
Cops love iPhone data trail
 Detective Josh Fazio of the Will County Sheriff's Department loves it when an iPhone turns up as evidence in a criminal case.
The sophisticated cell phone and mobile computer is becoming as popular with police as it is with consumers because it can provide investigators with so much information that can help in solving crimes
"When someone tells me they have an iPhone in a case, I say, 'Yeah!' I can do tons with an iPhone," said Fazio, who works in the sheriff's department high-tech crimes unit.
The iPhones generally store more data than other high-end phones -- and investigators such as Fazio frequently can tap in to that information for evidence.
And while some phone users routinely delete information from their devices, that step is seldom as final as it seems.
"When you hit the delete button, it's never really deleted," Fazio said.
The devices can help police learn where you've been, what you were doing there and whether you've got something to hide.
Mobile phones 'causing memory loss'
Millions of Brits are suffering with what's been dubbed 'numerical amnesia' because they're using mobile phones to store numbers rather than memorising them.
A study by life assistance company CPP claims that 23 million Britons don't know their partner's mobile number off by heart and 30 million can't recall their best friend's mobile number.
Yet 92 per cent of those surveyed said they did know their home landline number and 60 per cent knew that of their parents'.
The study put participants through an online memory test designed to assess an individuals' ability to recall sequences of numbers.
It found that four in five Brits can't remember a telephone number after only five seconds. CPP said that this has worrying implications in the event of an emergency.
"There are a lot of security issues in the design of the iPhone that lend themselves to retaining more personal information than any other device," said Jonathan Zdziarski, a former computer hacker who now teaches US law enforcers how to retrieve data from mobile phones.
"These devices organise people's lives and, if you're doing something criminal, something about it is going to go through that phone."Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since the product was launched in 2007.
Mr Zdziarski told The Daily Telegraph he suspected that security had been neglected on the iPhone as it had been intended as a consumer product rather than a business one like rivals such as the Blackberry.
Wireless companies say they’ve been told their signals may be jammed during the G8 and G20 summits, but aren’t being given any more information about how thousands of cellphone users could be affected.
While the G8 summit is in Ontario cottage country, the G20 is in the heart of downtown Toronto, and widespread shutdown of cellphone networks could wreak havoc on businesses already preparing to take a hit from security precautions in place for the meetings.
But the technology is expected to be used only to create a moving bubble of electronic silence around motorcades.
“No one will be informed of locations and times for security reasons,” said one wireless industry source.
The Integrated Security Unit responsible for the summits wouldn’t comment on security plans
Citing the Times Square bombing suspect, who used a prepaid cell phone, two Senators have proposed legislation that would end anonymous use of prepaid mobile phone service.
Legislation aimed at thwarting criminals and terrorists has been proposed by two U.S. Senators who seek to require all applicants for prepaid phones to produce identification when they sign up for mobile phone service.
The legislation is sponsored by Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and John Cornyn (R-TX), who point out that Faisal Shahzad, the 30-year-old suspect who recently attempted to place a bomb in Times Square had used a prepaid cell phone which was later used by authorities to track him down. The legislation would require carriers to keep data on prepaid accounts for 18 months.
A security hole in AT&T’s website has leaked out data on more than 100,000 iPad owners, including government and military officials, corporate CEOs, and media executives, according to Gawker, which calls the leaked information “the most exclusive e-mail list on the planet.”
The personal data includes e-mail addresses and ICC-IDs — a unique ID that’s used to authenticate the SIM card in a customer’s iPad to AT&T’s network.
The leak snagged the details of dozens of elite iPad early adopters such as New York Mayor Michael Boomberg, anchorwoman Diane Sawyer of ABC News, New York Times CEO Janet Robinson and Col. William Eldredge, commander of the 28th Operations Group at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel also appears to be among the victims, Gawker reports, as do dozens of people at NASA, the Justice Department, the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security and other government offices.
Although the leak isn’t Apple’s fault, the data spillage comes on the heels of another public-relations embarrassment for the company that was served up courtesy of Gawker’s sister site, Gizmodo. In April, Gizmodo revealed secret details and photos of the company’s new 4G iPhone after anApple engineer left a prototype of the phone on a barstool.
 Researchers in academia, and increasingly within the mobile industry, are working with large databases showing where and when calls and texts are made and received to reveal commuting habits, how far people travel for public events, and even significant social trends. With potential applications ranging from city planning to marketing, such studies could also provide a new source of revenue for the cell phone companies. "Because cell phones have become so ubiquitous, mining the data they generate can really revolutionize the study of human behavior," says Ramón Cáceres, a lead researcher at AT&T's research labs in Florham Park, NJ.
If you were an AT&T subscriber and were near Los Angeles or New York between March 15 and May 15 last year, there's a 5 percent chance that your data was crunched by Cáceres and his colleagues in a study of the travel habits of the company's subscribers. The researchers amassed millions of call records from hundreds of thousands of users in 891 zip codes, covering every New York borough, 10 New Jersey counties, as well as Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties in California.
"The Cell Phone Poisoning Of America"
"Electromagnetic pollution may be the most significant form of pollution human activity has produced this century, all the more dangerous because it is invisible and insensible."
This powerful and striking statement was made by prominent physician Andrew Weil, MD, best-selling author of eight books, a Harvard Medical School graduate, and internationally recognized expert on medicinal herbs and integrative medicine. When you read the rest of this report you’ll understand why his statement is both accurate and valid.
Cell phones show human movement predictable 93% of the time
We'd like to think of ourselves as dynamic, unpredictable individuals, but according to new research, that's not the case at all. In a study published in last week's Science, researchers looked at customer location data culled from cellular service providers. By looking at how customers moved around, the authors of the study found that it may be possible to predict human movement patterns and location up to 93 percent of the time. These findings may be useful in multiple fields, including city planning, mobile communication resource management, and anticipating the spread of viruses.
Feds push for tracking cell phones
Two years ago, when the FBI was stymied by a band of armed robbers known as the "Scarecrow Bandits" that had robbed more than 20 Texas banks, it came up with a novel method of locating the thieves.
FBI agents obtained logs from mobile phone companies corresponding to what their cellular towers had recorded at the time of a dozen different bank robberies in the Dallas area. The voluminous records showed that two phones had made calls around the time of all 12 heists, and that those phones belonged to men named Tony Hewitt and Corey Duffey. A jury eventually convicted the duo of multiple bank robbery and weapons charges
THE TRUTH ABOUT CELL TOWERS
Cell Towers are popping up in everyone's backyard these days. And most of us fail to realize the dangers involved in having these monsters looming over our neighborhoods or even strategically placed atop our schools, churches or apartment buildings. Having a mobile phone - and the risks of using one - is an individual choice. What is NOT an individual choice is whether a mobile phone tower - with all of it's health risks - is placed in your neighborhood
Read more >>
Police fight cellphone recordings
Simon Glik, a lawyer, was walking down Tremont Street in Boston when he saw three police officers struggling to extract a plastic bag from a teenager’s mouth. Thinking their force seemed excessive for a drug arrest, Glik pulled out his cellphone and began recording.
Within minutes, Glik said, he was in handcuffs.
“One of the officers asked me whether my phone had audio recording capabilities,’’ Glik, 33, said recently of the incident, which took place in October 2007. Glik acknowledged that it did, and then, he said, “my phone was seized, and I was arrested.’’
Read more >>
Maine May Require Cell Phones to Carry Cancer Warnings
(NaturalNews) Representative Andrea Boland, a Democrat from Maine, has introduced legislation that would require all mobile phones sold in the state to bear a label warning people that the devices may cause brain cancer. Citing studies that highlight such risks, Boland plans to make her case before the legislature in January in favor of the bill which, if enacted, would make Maine the first state to mandate hazard warnings for mobile devices
French cellphonetransmitters removed
Recent court judgments that compel the mobile phone companies to take down existing phone masts have set off a real shock wave, invisible like the waves but very real in the microcosm of the pro-mobile establishment.
Read more >>
Is Your Cell Phone Bugged?
This short video explores ways to determine if your cell phone has been compromised to act as a bug. While it's obviously unlikely that this would happen to most people, it was recently revealed that the FBI has used this technique, and just as illicit wiretaps are possible, illicit cell phone bugging could also occur.
NYPD tracking cell phone owners, but foes aren't sure practice is legal
 The NYPD is amassing a database of cell phone users, instructing cops to log serial numbers from suspects' phones in hopes of connecting them to past or future crimes. In the era of disposable, anonymous cell phones, the file could be a treasure-trove for detectives investigating drug rings and other criminal enterprises, police sources say. "It's used to help build cases," one source said of the new initiative.
"It doesn't replace the human element, like debriefing prisoners, but it's another tool to use that we didn't have in the past."
Read more >>
Protecting your cell phone
Indianapolis - Your cell phone can be secretly hijacked, allowing someone else to hear everything you say and track your every move. 13 Investigates first exposed this problem a few months ago, and now WTHR has found a possible solution to help keep your cell phone and your family safe.
All across the internet, spyware manufacturers advertise products claiming they can help someone else spy on your cell phone.
WTHR tested some of those products in November and, since then, more than 4.3 million people worldwidehave watched 13 Investigates' cell phone tapping investigation.
Read more >>
Tapping your cell phone update
WARNING : Notting you say or text is protected Eveyone can do this.
New Studies Link Cell Phone Use to Cancer and Other Maladies
The discussion of cell phones and the problems they can cause is nothing new to Natural News readers, of course. Studies have linked cell phone radiation to changes in brain physiology, declines in sperm quality, cancer, and more.
Newly released studies in 2008 and 2009, compiled at the Environmental Working Group,2 have linked cell phone use to brain cancer, salivary gland tumors, behavioral problems, migraines and vertigo, and more. These newer studies show that use of a cell phone for ten years or longer can have serious impacts on a person's health by raising the chances of problems many-fold.
Cellphone radiation levels vary widely, watchdog report says
Some cellphones emit several times more radiation than others, the Environmental Working Group found in one of the most exhaustive studies of its kind.
The government watchdog group on Wednesday releases a list ranking cellphones in terms of radiation. The free listing of more than 1,000 devicescanbeviewed here.
CELL PHONE (FBI can listen to you when phone is turned off)
Mobile phones get cyborg vision
It's a gift that was once the preserve of fictional cyborgs.
Call it Terminator Vision - a view of the world tagged with rich, location-relevant information whilst your gaze flickers here and there. But now this Augmented Reality (AR), as it is known, is materialising in the real world. Mobile phone operators, at least, are hoping it will be the next big thing as programmers learn to corral all the bells and whistles of smart phones - GPS, video, accelerometers - into "killer applications".
NaturalNews Calls for Boycott on Kindle, iPhone and Other Big Brother DRM Technologies
Two weeks ago when Amazon.com remotely deleted copies of books that customers had purchased for their Kindle devices, it was a wake-up call for many consumer. "Huh? They can delete stuff I already bought?" Welcome to the world of DRM technology. DRM is a "Big Brother" technology that allows content controllers like Amazon.com or Apple to control (or even delete) content you've already paid for. Books, movies, music files and even software applications can be deleted or deactivated at the flick of a (digital) switch. Such technologies also limit your ability to move content from one device to another. You can't read Kindle books on your Sony E-Reader, for example. Nor can you loan a Kindle book to a friend in the way that you might loan a physical book to a friend (or check one out from the library).
India Bans Import of Mobile Phones Without Identity Codes
 The Indian government has banned the import of mobile phones without an IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number, and has ordered operators to block calls from phones without an IMEI from next month..The IMEI is a unique code that identifies a mobile device on a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network, and is usually programmed into the phone by the manufacturer.
A notification earlier this week from the Indian government's Directorate General of Foreign Trade has prohibited the import of mobile handsets that do not have an IMEI, or have an IMEI consisting entirely of zeros.
A large number of mobile phones that are sold in India are either spurious or unbranded, often sold at low prices without bills or warranty. Terrorists have been found to use phones without IMEI, as they prevent identification, according to security agencies
Cancer risk in mobile phones: Official
The chances of developing a malignant tumour are "significantly increased" for people who use a mobile for ten years. The shock finding is the result of the biggest ever study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organisation. Scientists found a type of brain tumour called glioma is more likely in long-term mobile users. French experts analysed data from 13 countries, including Britain. They cross-referenced various types of tumours with mobile use. Researchers admit the cause is unknown, but it is thought radiation from handsets could be the trigger. Study chief Professor Elisabeth Cardis said: "To underestimate the risk would be a complete disaster."
Last night a British expert insisted mobiles are not dangerous. Professor Patricia McKinney of the University of Leeds said: "Reasonable use is unlikely to increase the risk of tumours."
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