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| Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 01:12:15 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: As Apple Pay Arrives, Witnessing the Next Step in Money. Maybe.
Message-ID: <A76047E6-6F22-4A89-9E44-72BB9BD6D471@roscom.com>
As Apple Pay Arrives, Witnessing the Next Step in Money. Maybe.
Commerce experts say they think the involvement of Apple could be the impetus that moves mainstream consumers to digital payments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/technology/as-apple-pay-arrives-witnessing-the-next-step-in-money-maybe.html
[Attachment of type text/html removed.]
|
| Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:06:24 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Saving money on roaming is still hard - or, how a new startup failed me
Message-ID: <p06240812d06ca4e4c1f3@[10.0.1.3]>
Saving money on roaming is still hard - or, how a new startup failed me
Attach Arrivals promises easy solutions to service abroad, but it's
not foolproof yet.
by Cyrus Farivar
Oct 18 2014
Every time I go to Europe, I make a mental list of things that I need
to take with me: electrical adapters, a small stash of euros, and
local SIM cards. In a tiny SD card case, I even keep a paper clip and
SIMs from various countries (Germany, United Kingdom, Iceland) to
ease travel.
But if I'm going to a country I haven't been to before, I have to do
my research. I ask friends and check PrepaidGSM.net to find out what
provider offers the best mobile data service. Then, I have to figure
out where and how to get a local SIM. In short, it's a pain.
That's why I was thrilled to learn about Attach Arrivals, a new
San Francisco startup.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/10/saving-money-on-roaming-is-still-hard-or-how-a-new-startup-failed-me/
|
| Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:28:12 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Chinese government launches man-in-middle attack against iCloud
Message-ID: <p06240823d06caa761001@[10.0.1.3]>
Chinese government launches man-in-middle attack against iCloud
Targeting new iPhone users to capture user credentials, monitors find.
by Sean Gallagher
Oct 20 2014
Ars Technica
GreatFire.org, a group that monitors censorship by the Chinese
government's national firewall system (often referred to as the
"Great Firewall"), reports that China is using the system as part of
a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack on users of Apple's iCloud service
within the country. The attacks come as Apple begins the official
rollout of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus on the Chinese mainland.
The attack, which uses a fake certificate and Domain Name Service
address for the iCloud service, is affecting users nationwide in
China. The GreatFire.org team speculates that the attack is an effort
to help the government circumvent the improved security features of
the new phones by compromising their iCloud credentials and allowing
the government to gain access to cloud-stored content such as phone
backups.
...
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/10/chinese-government-launches-man-in-middle-attack-against-icloud/
***** Moderator's Note *****
The article contains a screenshot of the warning users see when they
are asked to accept the forged "iCloud" certificate. Unfortunately,
users don't understand digital certificates or what the warning means.
Bill Horne
Moderator
|
| Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:19:33 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Staples likely breached, retailer defenses back in spotlight
Message-ID: <p0624081dd06ca86393a2@[10.0.1.3]>
Staples likely breached, retailer defenses back in spotlight Time to
start sharing data and making corporate networks more secure.
by Robert Lemos
Oct 21 2014
Ars Technica
Office supply retailer Staples is investigating a possible breach of
its systems following reports from the banking industry of fraudulent
credit and debit card transactions at stores in the northeastern
United States.
On Tuesday, the company acknowledged that a breach may have occurred
and that it had contacted the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
The retailer declined to provide further details.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/10/staples-likely-breached-retailer-defenses-back-in-spotlight/
|
| Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:25:24 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: California woman charged with using spyware to tap a police officer's phone
Message-ID: <p06240821d06ca9a9dffa@[10.0.1.3]>
California woman charged with using spyware to tap a police officer's
phone Investigators say Kristin Nyunt intercepted sensitive law
enforcement information.
by Megan Geuss
Oct 20 2014
Ars Technica
On Friday, a Monterey County woman was charged with wiretapping a
police officer and possessing "illegal interception devices,"
according to the Northern California District Attorney's office. The
District Attorney said that Kristin Nyunt, age 40, allegedly
intercepted communications made by a police officer on his mobile
phone.
Nyunt is the ex-wife of former Pacific Grove Police Commander John
Nyunt, and she has already been sentenced to eight years and four
months in prison after pleading guilty in July to five counts of
identity theft, two counts of computer network fraud, one count of
residential burglary, and two counts of forgery.
In the latest charges [PDF], the District Attorney accused Nyunt of
using illegal spyware including MobiStealth, StealthGenie, and mSpy to
intercept "sensitive law enforcement communication" in real time.
Nyunt allegedly placed the spyware on a police officer's phone
surreptitiously, although court documents do not detail how or why.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/10/california-woman-charged-with-using-spyware-to-tap-a-police-officers-phone/
http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Nyunt.pdf
|
| Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 10:07:53 -0400
From: ajbcommconsulting@frontier.com (Jim Bennett)
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Businesses Are Turning to Beacons, and It's Going to Be O.K.
Message-ID: <54490BB9.8030907@frontier.com>
From the NY Times article:
"In order for any beacon-led action to happen on a phone, you must
install an app that communicates with beacons. And installing one
kind of app doesn't mean you are authorizing all beacons to talk to
your phone. An N.F.L. app, for example, can communicate only with
the beacons the N.F.L. has installed. However, some apps might have
broader reach, so be careful."
Ah, there it is, the requisite "be careful" proviso. The only real dark
cloud in a piece that otherwise sticks to the general tone of most
"tech" reporting: Life will be great when your toaster is connected to
the internet, so let's get on board!
Never mind that most of the apps you install probably enable intrusive
mechanisms of one kind or another. Never mind that the TOS and EULAs
[that most users accept blindly] grant the purveyors of said apps the
right to do all this and more at any time, the clause being buried
somewhere in the 30,000 or more words of the agreement, or in one of
several equally long and onerous agreements referenced and linked within.
Oh, and never mind that turning an app's tracking/snooping "off"
sometimes does nothing. The Foxit PDF reader app is a perfect example,
and there are doubtless many more.
And now, a rebuttal of sorts to this very post, built right in:
This entire rant is nothing new. Privacy advocates, bunker-dwellers,
hacktivists and all manner of digital misanthropes have been beating
this drum for years. The drumbeat is only audible to for those who are
already tuned to the correct wavelength, so the result is just more
preaching to the converted. The rest of us [read: the majority] believe
that things are fine just the way they are, which is exactly how we got
to now.
It took many decades on this earth, but the one thing I finally "got"
about America is this: Most [99 percent] of the time, governments and
corporations give the people exactly what the people want.
Jim
====================================
The future? Yeah, I've heard of it.
|
| Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 21:14:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: FCC Further Tweaks Signal Booster Rules
Message-ID: <ba2d85bc-71fc-44df-8632-277c2023a249@googlegroups.com>
By Laura Stefani, CommLawBlog, October 20, 2014
Some rules relaxed while measures added to prevent interference to wireless
networks
Back in early 2013, the FCC took steps to help consumers deal with the dreaded
cell phone phenomenon of dead spots by allowing the use of private signal
boosters. (Readers should recall that boosters receive and re-transmit cell
phone signals to improve coverage in their immediate vicinity.) And now,
underscoring its interest in encouraging such devices, the Commission has
tweaked its rules. But be forewarned, the tweaks are highly technical and
unless you're deeply involved in the manufacturing side of the booster
universe, you shouldn't expect to notice any dramatic changes.
To recap, there are two classes of approved boosters, Consumer and Industrial.
Consumer boosters, in turn, come in two flavors, Wideband Consumer Boosters
(designed to boost signals of more than one cell provider) and
Provider-Specific Consumer Signal Boosters (designed to boost the signals of
just a single cell provider). All Consumer Boosters are subject to "Network
Protection Standards" (NPS), although those standards differ somewhat between
the two different types of Consumer Boosters.
http://www.commlawblog.com/articles/unlicensed-operations-and-emer/
Neal McLain
10-22-14 2315 CDT
|
| Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:39:52 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Obama signs "BuySecure" initiative to speed EMV adoption in the US
Message-ID: <p06240826d06cad0cab28@[10.0.1.3]>
Obama signs "BuySecure" initiative to speed EMV adoption in the US
Home Depot [and] Target also promised to start using chip-and-pin
terminals by Jan 2015.
by Megan Geuss
Oct 19 2014
Ars Technica
On Friday, President Obama signed an executive order to speed the
adoption of EMV-standard cards in the US. The transition to EMV - an
eponymous acronym of Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, the companies that
developed the standard - has been slow to gain traction in the US.
The EMV standard will require credit card companies to stop relying on
the magnetic stripe cards that are common today and move toward cards
with embedded chips that will offer more secure credit card
transactions.
Lawmakers and credit card companies confirmed earlier this year that
the US would make the transition to EMV cards in October 2015. But
over the past several months, retail stores like Target, Home Depot,
Michaels, Neiman Marcus, and more have sustained major hacks that
caused the retailers to lose credit card information and personal
information of millions upon millions of customers, giving new
urgency to the call for more secure credit cards.
...
http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/10/obama-signs-buysecure-initiative-to-speed-emv-adoption-in-the-us/
***** Moderator's Note *****
This seems to fly in the face of the cell-phone makers attempts to
position "smart" phones as secure money-transfer mechanisms.
Bill Horne
Moderator
|
| Date: 22 Oct 2014 18:53:25 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Cell phones and towers
Message-ID: <20141022185325.9102.qmail@ary.lan>
>What are the best options for bring multiple carrier signals to the
>address?
A very easy approach would be to get femtocells from the carriers of interest.
Those are tiny cellular base stations that use your broadband connection as
backhaul. Verizon will sell you one for about $250:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/accessories/samsung-network-extender-scs-2u01/
AT&T Microcell for $319:
http://www.amazon.com/Microcell-Wireless-Booster-Antenna-Compatible/dp/B004F1F9P6
Sprint Airave:
http://www.amazon.com/Sprint-Airave/dp/B0035TLZ3O
T-Mobile personal cellspot:
http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/wifi-calling-wifi-extenders.html
The alternative is an antenna on the roof pointed at the cell tower,
if you have line of sight, connected to a cell booster. Before you do
that, go up on the roof where the antenna would be with your phone and
see if you get a usable signal. If not, I'd go the femtocell route.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006MGPIVC/ref
=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3
R's,
John
|
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