Mobile

Earlier this week the FBI issued an alert about the risk of mobile banking platforms being targeted by cybercriminals during the current pandemic lockdown.

More than 75 percent of Americans used mobile banking in some form in 2019, but since the start of this year, a 50-percent spike in the usage of banking apps has been observed. Security professionals have been responding to the news.

Vulnerabilities affecting mobile and 5G networks are putting industrial equipment, smart homes, and city infrastructure at risk according to a new report.

Produced by Positive Technologies, this is the fourth in a series of reports on the greatest threats and vulnerabilities in the mobile ecosystem. It highlights the cyber security risks to networks that originate with the GTP protocol -- which is used to transmit user data and control traffic on 2G, 3G, and 4G networks.

According to the latest study from mobile security company Lookout, the first quarter of this year saw the enterprise mobile phishing encounter rate increase by 37.1 percent globally .

This includes regional increases of 66.3 percent in North America, 25.5 percent in EMEA and 27.7 percent in the Asia Pacific region.

Mobile data usage has been on the rise for a while, as networks get better and faster and more people get mobile phones. Of course, with many people home right now phones are likely being used more than ever.

NPD, a market research firm that monitors these things, found a surge in usage in March, which coincides with the pandemic and people being forced to work from home.

If you have a monthly mobile phone plan you may not think too much about the price you pay for mobile data. However, comparison site cable.co.uk has been looking at mobile data costs around the world with some surprising results.

The United States is one of the most expensive developed nations for purchasing mobile data, coming in 188th in the world, with an average 1GB cost of $8.00 -- well above the global average of $5.09.

Vulnerabilites in the 'Diameter' signalling protocol used to authenticate and authorize messages and information distribution in 4G networks leave them vulnerable to attack.

Researchers at Positive Technologies replicated the actions of threat actors and their attempts to infiltrate mobile networks were 100 percent successful. They also discovered that the biggest threat was denial of service attacks.

Big changes are happening to mobile networks but many people remain confused or in the dark about what's going on.

A Ting Mobile survey of 1,500 customers across all US carriers finds 79 percent of people have no idea that the 3G network is being phased out across the country by 2021, nor how it will affect them.

More than half (51 percent) of global consumers have been waiting for 5G networks and smartphones to become available before upgrading their devices. This stretches to more than 70 percent of people in India and the Philippines.

A survey of over 5,000 people worldwide by Blancco Technology Group finds 45 percent of US consumers have held onto their current device for longer than usual in anticipation of 5G availability, while 61 percent intend to upgrade to a 5G device with 42 percent doing so in the next three to six months.

Operator-billed revenue from 5G IoT connections will reach $8 billion by the end of 2024, up from $525 million in 2020 -- growth of more than 1,400 percent in five years.

A new study from Juniper Research forecasts that 5G IoT connections will be considered as new connections that won't cannibalise existing operator connectivity revenue from current IoT technologies.

According to a new study, 36.5 percent of all organizations have experienced a malware incident on a mobile device in the past year, which represents a 142 percent increase from 2018.

Research from mobile security specialist Wandera finds 57 percent of organizations have experienced a mobile phishing incident, with 60 percent of mobile phishing attacks occurring over HTTPS.

A new study shows a 29 percent increase in suspected online retail fraud during the start of the 2019 holiday shopping season compared to the same period in 2018, and a 60 percent increase over the same period from 2017 to 2019.

The findings from iovation, the fraud prevention arm of TransUnion, are based on the online retail transactions analyzed for its e-commerce customers between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday over the last three years.

Security experts from Security Research Labs (SRLabs) have warned that carriers are implementing RCS (Rich Communication Services which will supersede SMS) in ways that risk leaving users exposed to all manner of attack.

The German hacking research collective issues the stark warning that "RCS technology exposes most mobile users to hacking". This is not because of inherent problems with the messaging protocol, but with the ways in which it is being implement.

Mobile users are becoming far more willing to subscribe to a service than to make a one-time purchase according to a new report.

A study from mobile user acquisition specialist Liftoff has analyzed more than 349 billion impressions across 992 mobile apps, 5.35 billion clicks and 76.6 million total post-install events.

New research from fraud prevention and multi-factor authentication specialist iovation reveals that 49 percent of all risky transactions now come from mobile devices, up from 30 percent in 2018, 33 percent in 2017 and 25 percent in 2016.

Looked at geographically, North America with 59 percent of all risky transactions coming from mobile devices, leads the way. In 2018, it was Asia at 53 percent. In 2017, it was North America with 55 percent, and in 2016, it was North America again with 36 percent.

Financial services are at greater risk of phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks on mobile devices than businesses in other industries according to a new report.

The study from mobile security specialist Wandera analyzed mobile device data from 225 financial services customers and reveals financial services organizations are experiencing a higher volume of phishing attacks than their peers in other sectors (57 percent compared to 42 percent cross-industry).