Mobile

LocationSmart, a company based in Southern California, is under investigation by the FCC after it was discovered that its website made it possible for just about anyone to access location data for the majority of US cell phones.

Security expert Brian Krebs reported that a bug on the LocationSmart website made it possible for anyone to check on the location of any AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon phone in the US. Even more worryingly, the data is said to be accurate to a few hundred yards.

The phenomenon that is Fortnite will be making its way to Android, Epic Games has revealed.

An Android version of the game is something that mobile gamers have been begging for for some time now, and it seems it will not be long until these pleas are answered. While an exact release date has not been revealed, Fortnite for Android will be happening in the next few months.

The US Department of Commerce has implemented a ban on American companies selling components to ZTE. The Chinese telecoms firm is being punished for violating sanctions on Iran and North Korea after pleading guilty last year.

At the same time, the UK's cyber defense watchdog, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), has warned UK telecoms firms that the use of ZTE equipment or services pose a risk to national security. The action taken by the two nations is expected to have severe implications for the company.

A new report from mobile security specialist Lookout exposes the growing risk from phishing attacks on mobile devices, with an increase in the number of users clicking on URLs that bypass security controls.

The mobile phishing URL click rate has increased 85 percent year-on-year. 56 percent of Lookout users received and clicked on their mobile device a phishing URL that bypassed existing layers of phishing defense.

We've become increasingly used to technology that uses 'wake words' like, "Hey, Cortana" to initiate interaction.

But this technology has, so far, failed to make a big impact in the mobile apps arena, the main reason being the battery drain created by having an app that's constantly listening. That could be about to change as Silicon Valley company Sensory is announcing a breakthrough in running its TrulyHandsfree wake word and speech recognition AI engine directly on Android and iOS smartphone applications at low-power.

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and revelations about call and text logging, Facebook simply could not have got away with doing nothing. Mark Zuckerberg has hardly prostrated himself in front of users in his various recent interviews, but today Facebook announces a series of changes to privacy settings.

The social network is making it easier to find and use privacy settings, and providing users with information about how to delete the data Facebook stores about them.

Over half (57 percent) of organizations suspect their mobile workers have been hacked, or caused a mobile security issue, in the last 12 months according to a new study.

The study by mobile connectivity specialist iPass shows that public Wi-Fi is the most common source of incidents, with 81 percent of respondents saying they had seen Wi-Fi related security incidents in the last year.

Business operating system Zoho is launching an updated version of its Creator apps builder, delivering the ability to build native mobile apps to automate business processes.

Zoho Creator 5 introduces a drag-and-drop interface to complement its HTML/CSS screen creator, and includes pre-built design elements like buttons, layouts, and reports that users can drag onto their page.

Google search results are, usually, multi-page affairs, but if a new test gets off the ground this could be set to change.

The search giant is conducting a limited test that sees the arrival of a "More results" button at the bottom of search results, replacing the "Next button" that is there at the moment. It's a variation on the idea of infinite scrolling, but a variation that grants the user more control.

A new report from digital threat management company RiskIQ states malicious mobile apps declined at the end of 2017.

To reach these findings the firm analyzed 120 mobile app stores and it puts the decline down largely to a decrease in the inventory of AndroidAPKDescargar, the most prolific dealer of blacklisted apps.

Most of us click on the Agree button when we install apps without actually reading the privacy agreement.

But some new research from Princeton University and other bodies reveals that many apps use a network of third-party services  --  often invisible to the user -- that provide analytics, social network integration, and monetization.

Google is adding some important accessibility information to Maps, letting users see whether or not routes are navigable by wheelchair. The company says the extra data will be useful not only to wheelchair users, but anyone with mobility issues -- as well as parents pushing kids in a stroller.

Starting in London, Tokyo, Mexico City, Boston and Sydney, wheelchair accessible routes are being added, and more will follow as Google working with transport companies to gather the necessary information.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against the TSA, asking for details to be released about the policies governing searches carried out on phones and laptops on domestic flights.

There have been a number of complaints recently from passengers unhappy with the fact that their devices have been searched without any reason being given. Concerns are mounting about invasion of privacy, hence the ACLU's interest in finding out precisely why the searches are being carried out.

Advertising Trojans were the top mobile malware threat in 2016, however, new figures from Kaspersky Lab show their numbers declined last year but their creators turned to improved monetization methods.

Taking advantage of super-user rights to secretly install various applications or bombard an infected device with ads to make use of the smartphone impossible, ad trojans have become a major threat and are also extremely difficult to detect and remove.

It is a number of years since Facebook acquired mobile data compression firm Onavo, but in recent weeks concern mounted about how the social network's Onavo VPN tool collects user data.

The collection of user data while an app or service is being used is one thing, but a security researcher noticed that Onavo seemed to gather certain snippets of user data even when switched off.