Mobile Security Landscape

Hello,

I randomly decide to rant about things I feel are exceptionally interesting, either to the general public or usually more specifically to the small subset of people that are involved in security that live and breath the topics I prefer to discuss. 

However in this case I want to present a startling dilemma. Something that both Information Security professionals and the general public should know. 

Recently over the past few years we as a community have become increasingly more dependent on mobile applications and mobile devices to coordinate data, information and to facilitate our communications. We use various modules of software for social networking, sharing stories, finding information and searching for places to live, stay, visit, etc. One could theorize based off of current logical societal dependencies that we are TOO reliant on mobile data to leave it insecure and without our own control over it. In fact let's not even mention theory, how about you look up any financial information on the markets, lookup the stocks and fiscal end of years for Google, Apple, AT&T, HTC and others. You'll see that in most research and in open data available to anyone that will look for it we have a huge amount of money between large corporations trying to help the consumer to move data from the desktop to the tablet or phone. 

This trend is disturbing, in fact it is more alarming than most people want to consider. Think about this for perspective, the average person has dozens of applications on their iPhone or Android based device and each application can decided what permissions it has and what data it needs to provide whatever service it is providing. You store your contacts, personal and work email, text messages, call logs, financial data, logins to your favorite social networking sites, blogs, Amazon, Newegg, and much more. 

All of that data is UNENCRYPTED and unlike a desktop or workstation that sits at a home behind closed doors and in businesses behind other security measures, these devices are with you at all times and ever present. As easy to misplace as keys and as powerful as spilling your entire contents of your personal and work life into my hand. There have been some tools and very intelligent people out there trying to help to provide better ways to secure your mobile device and your data but in the mean time think how much risk we all carry in our pockets. 

Spotify - I <3 you

As usual we nerds of the world are constantly searching for new applications, software, revolutions. We want anything and everything that may change how we test something, fix it, how it performs, or even how it entertains us. 

Spotify, a service with a mobile and desktop application that allows you to stream millions of songs in varying quality for free is absolutely EXCEPTIONAL. Honestly I tend to discover and fiddle with all the music or film streaming services out there but this one is by far the most remarkable service I've stumbled upon recently. 

I highly suggest you take a look at their site, grab some friends, get invites and then start compiling playlists and sharing them. Below are several links to randomly generated playlists from my last.fm account. 

QPI

AES crypto chip

CMOS

lsof

Have fun listening. 

Social networking and blogging - Useful or hindering?

Hello,

I wanted to talk a little bit about the whole point to blogging in general, having a website of your own and taking stake in this little corner of the world called the internet. 

You see from my perspective it seems that when you have tools like Twitter/Facebook/Google+, etc you should use them if it serves to assist you in some other important goal or solution. Social networkings main reason for existing is to provide a tool, using the internet, mobile devices, etc to help spread knowledge to our loved ones and friends about the ever chaning world and our ever changing selves. Now there are all sorts of problems with putting that type of information on the internet, entrusting third-party providers, trusting government regulations and laws to protect you, trusting your friends and loved ones with that knowledge in the first place. I could keep going. But *still* the point remains that these are tools, and humans have always developed innovatibe tools and tech to expand the human condition and connect us. Blogging too has a point, although again with its own fallicies and caveats. If one wanted a public forum to provide useful synthesis of thought that may or may not help someone else in the world, even just one person whom you may or may not know, than why not do that? So too was this blog created for that purpose. Like anything else in the world and in ones life though it becomes hard balancing tools, news, technology and life. Finding a place and time for all of this while prioritizing the things that matter most is the hardest and sometimes most indiscernable obstacle an internest user faces. I digress. I am developing several projects, ideas, tools, skills, that I hope will be beneficial to those who follow my life and are interested in what I can do. I hope to use this site and the sites it connects to to better myself and to provide something useful to others. If at some point I realize it does not work in my life or does not do anything useful then I will remove it. Until then we'll see if some of the projects I am working on will end up here in the sites projects page.

Stay tuned. 

Patriot Act Renewal - EFF

Hello All.

It's been a little while.

I need your assistance in something important. The link will direct you to more info from EFF. (Btw if you're not a member of EFF and read my blog, I hate you.)

White House Call-In Day
On April 5, 2011
Tell Obama: Keep Your Promises and
Demand PATRIOT Act Reform!
202-456-1111

Please see this. http://action.eff.org/site/Calendar?id=100341&view=Detail

Art and it's impact on the human condition

I would like to take a moment to show you something non-technical. This has to do with a close friend of mine and his very emotional art. He dables in many things, take notice because he will be great someday. 

http://about.me/Ryan_Babb

http://ryantbabb.tumblr.com

http://ryanbabb.blogspot.com

Thanks for taking a look. Appreciated.