Last night Apple announced the release of the latest in its tablet range, the new iPad. This device looks and feels and does much the same as its predecessors, which is slightly irritating – I think we all expect big, amazing things when Apple has a launch, which makes this tablet and iPhone 4S both damp squibs in comparison to earlier releases.

However, what this new tablet does include is LTE and HSPA connectivity – the former good for standing Apple in good stead with US operators, who are on the 4G tip already – and a retina display to blow away its predecessor.

This new device has been billed as the iPad HD, yet one thing that not many have noticed is that the new iPad is not actually HD – this isn’t an HD screen at all, it’s a 2k one. For those of you without broadcast industry knowledge, this is like HD with extra wheels; HD.2, if you will. HD resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels, while the new Apple display is 2048 x 1536, or 264 pixels per inch, or a heft of 3.1 million pixels, which is known in digital cinema circles as 2k.

This is not about Apple being extremely generous though; the reason for the need for this extra pixilation is due to the distance you view the screen at, which is also why the iPhone 4S has a higher pixel count than this new iPad, as you view it closer so you need a tighter pixel display to get the HD effect.

Changes to Tax Liability to Smartphones

Academics Benedikt Driessen and Ralf Hund from Ruhr University Bochum revealed the breakthrough at a symposium this morning. Byreverse engineering and successfully breaking the GMR-1 and GMR-2 voice ciphers used by many satellite networks, they have exposed how easy it can be for sensitive calls to be intercepted.

The report ‘Don’t Trust Satellite Phones’ outlines how anyone with access to a suitably programmed computer and a simple software-defined radio capable of receiving satellite frequencies can intercept and listen to satellite phone calls, including calls made by disaster relief agencies and the military.

Reacting to the news, Bjoern Rupp, CEO at GSMK Cryptophone, said: “This breakthrough has major implications for the military, civilians engaged on overseas operations, or indeed anyone using satellite phones to make sensitive calls in turbulent areas.

“The ciphers that have been compromised are used by many geostationary satellite networks that are based on the principle of one single satellite covering a huge geographic area, often the size of an entire continent. So by using the insight from this research, it is easily possible to listen to a huge number of confidential satellite calls from your continent with only modest technical effort.

“Many government agencies, including the military, make many of their communications through their own technology. However, they often still rely on satellite phones to communicate with locals, back to HQ or people at home. With this announcement, it has been shown that the satellite handsets’ built-in encryption on these calls is no longer secure, which could pose a considerable threat to the armed forces and civilians alike.

“This has highlighted the need for strong end-to-end encryption, which would prevent eavesdroppers from being able to intercept calls in this way. At GSMK, we have developed end-to-end satellite voice encryption solutions that are fully compatible with GSMK’s secure mobile and fixed-line phones, thus helping to combat the threat of ubiquitous satellite interception.”

The breakthrough echoes the research by German computer scientist Karsten Nohl in 2009, which exposed how mobile phones using GSM technology can be intercepted.

Upload any files you want from any number of machines, PCs or MACs and access them from anywhere, including your mobile. Most backups have set times to upload which can mean data lose. LiveFiles runs quietly in the background and backs up your files as soon as they are changed. Peace of mind and easy to use, or your money back! http://telcoop.co.uk/products/livefiles-unlimited-real-time-back-ups/

News Flash! LiveFiles Demo now available to view – check it out!

Until now, using a mobile to call a traditional Freephone number, such as those starting with 08 , meant having to pay up to 46 pence per minute for the call, now Channel Islands based telecommunications company, JT , has introduced the first working five digit voice short-code number which is free of charge to mobile callers and works on all networks.

JT’s MVSCs will be welcomed by those businesses that wish to offer Freephone facilities to their customers as part of their marketing strategy. In 2011 Ofcom reported that 48% of mobile callers believe it is the company they are calling that is responsible for setting the charges of the call so if the calls are free this reflects well.

In November 2011, the average actual UK residential broadband speed was 7.6Mbit/s, compared with 6.2Mbit/s in November/December 2010, and 6.8Mbit/s in May 2011.

This increase was mainly as a result of consumers moving onto higher speed packages. In November 2011, for the first time more than half (58 per cent) of UK residential broadband connections had a headline, or advertised speed of above 10Mbit/s, up from 48 per cent in May 2011.

However, more than 4 in 10 broadband consumers remain on packages with speeds of 10Mbit/s or less even though many of them would be able to get a higher speed at little or no extra cost if they switched package or provider.

This is Ofcom’s sixth report of UK broadband speeds which aims to measure the performance of residential broadband in the UK.

Previous reports highlighted how there can be a significant difference between advertised speeds and speeds actually received by consumers. This confirmed the need for the Advertising Code-writing bodies, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP), to review the use of ‘up to’ speed claims in broadband advertising to ensure that advertisements do not mislead consumers.

Following this review, CAP and BCAP published guidance in September 2011 on the use of speed claims in broadband advertising, which will come into force in April 2012. Among other things, it requires that speed claims should be achievable by at least 10 per cent of the relevant internet service provider’s (ISP) customer base, and where a significant proportion of customers are unlikely to receive a speed sufficiently close to that advertised, further qualifying information, such as the speed range obtainable by those customers, should be included in the advertisement. In addition, any claim should be based on robust and reasonably representative data.

In line with this new guidance, using data from Ofcom’s latest research, the industry average speed based on the 10 per cent availability criteria would be 6Mbit/s for services currently advertised at ‘up to’ 8Mbit/s, and 14Mbit/s for services currently advertised at ‘up to’ 20/24Mbit/s. As indicated above, advertisements for these packages would also have to supplement headline speed claims with information such as the median speed or the typical speed range achieved by half of customers around the median.

Of the 13 ISP packages covered, Ofcom’s research found that the fibre-based and cable broadband technologies were fastest. Virgin Media’s ‘up to’ 50Mbit/s continued to have the highest average download speeds of approximately 49Mbit/s.

BT’s fibre-based service (BT Infinity) delivered average download speeds of around 36Mbit/s, up from approximately 34Mbit/s in May 2011. The service also achieved the highest average upload speeds of 8.8Mbit/s. All other ISP packages did not change significantly from May 2011.

Ofcom is committed to ensuring that consumers have access to clear information about their broadband speeds. The Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds was introduced in December 2008 to inform prospective broadband customers of their likely maximum speed before signing up to a service, and a strengthened Code came into force in July 2011.

Ofcom has recently commissioned mystery shopping to look at whether ISPs are adhering to the spirit of the Code and aims to publish the findings in the spring.

Ofcom Chief Executive, Ed Richards, said: “It is encouraging that speeds are increasing and that consumers have a real choice of broadband service. There is a real opportunity for consumers to look at the packages and deals in their area in order to receive the best value, speeds and performance available to them.

“We can look forward to further increases in UK broadband speeds over the next few years. Most households in the UK can now access superfast broadband services, and these services are set to get faster still as Virgin Media aims to double the speeds of most of its cable services and BT aims to double the speed of its fibre-to-the-cabinet service from 40Mbit/s to 80Mbit/s.”

Be warned!

1: Mobile Malware

Not surprisingly, given the exponential growth in mobile malware over the last few months, the mobile vector is seen as the biggest threat. “In 2012 we will start to see a major threat emerging as companies start to roll out bring your own device and iPad initiatives,” warns Blue Coat Systems. “The big attack vector in 2012 is mobile – Android based devices, tablets, ipads, smart phones – both in delivering payloads and being attacked themselves,” comments Guidance Software. “Whether it’s surfing the web, social networking, gaming, or email, mobile malware has a growing number of possible infection vectors that will most certainly make their way out of the ‘proof of concept’ realm and more into the mainstream,” says AppRiver.

Mobile devices are “the soft under belly that hackers will find irresistible,” warns Vigil software. “Anti-malware for smartphones and tablet devices is in its infancy,” explains M86 Security, “and cybercriminals will continue to target these devices.”

“Attacks will be simple and straightforward as there aren’t many defense mechanisms to block them,” adds Trusteer. Furthermore, warns the Information Security Forum, “many of the web applications used on these devices are unlikely to have undergone formal software development and testing.”

2: The APT

The advanced persistent threat (APT) is the second most predicted threat. Threats to national infrastructures (coming in fourth) and some targeted attacks are also likely to involve APTs. A key perception is that APTs will increasingly be used against nations and corporations rather than individuals. The current year “has seen the APT gain more awareness and there are indications that the hacking community is using such mechanisms as Duqu to gain access to target systems as opposed to users,” explains Cyber-Ark.

APT attacks “against high-profile companies and government agencies in 2011 will become even more predominant in 2012,” warns Lancope. A “key threat for 2012,” adds BAE Systems Detica, “is most likely to be an increase in economic cyber espionage. As a result we predict that protection against advanced persistent threats (APT) will rise up the corporate agenda and move to centre stage.”

3: Social Engineering

Social engineering is seen as the third most dangerous threat vector. This should be considered in conjunction with the social media threat and spear phishing, since the intelligence for social engineering will often come from the social networks of the target. We predict, says Tripwire, that “the biggest infosec threats in 2012 will come from attack vectors that rely on social engineering.  We’ve seen a rise in spearfishing attacks and other targeted attacks in the last couple of years, and the relative success of these attacks makes it reasonable to assume we’ll see more of them.” RandomStorm agrees. “Social engineering will continue to pose a huge threat to private records in the public sector and financial data and IP in the private sector,” it warns. “This is because humans are naturally trusting and so they will always be the weakest link when it comes to physical and online security.”

Infrastructure Threats

Threats to the national infrastructures are also increasing. “Nation states’ critical national infrastructures will increasingly face cyber attacks,” warns LogRhythm, “with world economic and political instability precipitating greater activity in this area.”

Kaspersky sees the targeted attack, whether it’s APTs or spear phishing aimed at the individual, corporation or national infrastructure, as the biggest threat. “Targeted attacks against organizations and government bodies, continuing the trend we have seen in 2011,” it says. “The main objective is financial gain,” but also adds Kaspersky, to disrupt and damage a competitor or infrastructure.

“SQL and XSS vulnerabilities will be the fastest growing threat of 2012,” believes Outpost24, “a trend continuing from the raft of data breaches seen in 2011. This is down to the relative ease with which hackers can scan for such flaws in the coding of websites and exploit them. SQL and XSS attacks are simple and devastatingly effective.”

DDoS Attacks

DDoS attacks are almost always delivered via botnets, so the two should be considered together. DDoS is the number one threat predicted by IBM’s X-Force. “We expect to see more of the sort of politically motivated hacktivism that dominated the headlines in 2011,” it suggests. “It’s particularly important for organizations to develop a DDOS response strategy in advance so that they know exactly what to do when that dreaded day comes.”

SSL, says Imperva. “Attackers are exploiting vulnerabilities in the various implementations of the SSL protocol. Furthermore, we are seeing a rise in attacks which target the worldwide infrastructure that supports SSL. We expect these attacks to reach a tipping point in 2012.”

Ravenswood Consultants sees a growing threat to compliance from the increasing use of the cloud. It cites the problems of insecure access and potential foreign storage as problems. “Both of these instances are likely be in breach of the EU directive on personal data security, encoded in the UK as the Data Protection Act, 1998.”

Privacy

And finally, continuing the theme of personal data, ESET’s David Harley considers privacy to be a primary threat vector. This will be the outcome of increasing international attempts to bolster security by sharing information. “That may not sound like a threat,” he says, “but do you trust your government to make only ‘appropriate’ use of your data, and to keep that data secure?”

Finally…

One last comment. Despite all the threats and warnings and predictions you’ll come across over the next month, remember this: it will be the threat that you didn’t expect that gets you. Happy New Year!

“The accelerometers on many smartphones could be used to decipher what you typing into your PC keyboard — including passwords and email content — according to computer scientists  at Georgia Tech.

The technique depends on the person typing at their computer with their mobile phone on the desk nearby. The vibrations created by typing onto the computer keyboard can be detected by the accelerometer of the phone and translated by a program into readable sentences with as much as 80 percent accuracy.

The technique involves working through probability by detecting pairs of keystrokes, rather than individual keys. It models “keyboard events” in pairs and then works out whether the pair of keys pressed is on the left or the right side of the keyboard and whether they are close together or far apart on the QWERTY keyboard. Once it has worked this out, it compares the results to a preloaded dictionary where each word has been broken down in the same way.

As an example, the word “canoe” is made up of four keystroke pairs. These are: “C-A, A-N, N-O and O-E”. The code is translated by the program as Left-Left-Near, Left-Right-Far, Right-Right-Far and Right-Left-Far. This is compared to the dictionary (that has also been translated in according to this code) and then suggests the most likely word. With a dictionary of around 58,000 words, the system has achieved word detection rates as high as 80 percent.

The technique is not easy. Patrick Traynor, assistant professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Computer Science explains: “We first tried our experiments with an iPhone 3GS, and the results were difficult to read. But then we tried an iPhone 4, which has an added gyroscope to clean up the accelerometer noise, and the results were much better. We believe that most smartphones made in the past two years are sophisticated enough to launch this attack.”

Previous studies have used microphone vibrations to pick up on typing patterns, but a microphone is much more sensitive than an accelerometer. Your typical smartphone microphone can sample vibrations at 44,000 times per second, while the accelerometers sample just 100 times per second. Microphones also tend to be more secure than accelerometers; the phones operating system tends to ask users whether to give any new applications access to built-in sensors, but the accelerometer is rarely protected in this way.

Of course, your phone would have to be infected with some spyware first, but this could be achieved through a seemingly-innocuous application that doesn’t ask to use any of the phone sensors that might make you suspicious. Once downloaded, the keyboard detection malware could be activated so the next time you start typing with your phone next to you, it could be listening.”

BlackBelt Smartphone Defence is a suite of products in one that prevents malware and virus attacks as well as bullying by blocking SMS and MMS from accessing your phone unless you want them to. It also allows you to lock or delete your information from the phone in the event of its theft and even tells you where the phone is and the phone number of the thief if they put their own SIM card into it.