IT Security Stack Exchange
IT Security Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [mobile]

Security in mobile devices. Issues concerning regular cellphones, smartphones, tablet computers and other portable information devices all fit into this category. If your question is specific to one of the following, use it instead: [phone], [smartphone], [iphone], [ios], [windows-phone], [android].

Security in mobile devices - smartphones, netbooks, laptops, blackberries and other computing or communication devices not typically classified as desktop or server.

The rise of mobile devices brings novel risks: the traditional view of a company's computers being inside some privileged boundary with everyone else being outside the same perimeter can no longer be applied. Questions relating to understanding the threat model of mobile devices, configuring security features of particular mobile platforms and addressing mobile-specific security issues all belong in the tag.

Related Tags

This tag is a super-category of: , , , ,

and related to:

1042 questions
535
votes
18 answers

Police forcing me to install Jingwang spyware app, how to minimize impact?

Chinese police are forcing whole cities to install an Android spyware app Jingwang Weishi. They are stopping people in the street and detaining those who refuse to install it. Knowing that I may be forced to install it sooner or later, what are my…
Citizen
  • 2,711
  • 3
  • 7
  • 6
229
votes
15 answers

Tracing the location of a mobile IP from an email

I'm a TV scriptwriter - and not hugely tech-savvy, so please bear with me... If the police have an email, sent by a suspect over a 3G or 4G network, could they use the IP address (since they know when it was sent) to find out - from the service…
kjh03
  • 1,681
  • 2
  • 9
  • 5
137
votes
8 answers

How hard is it to intercept SMS (two-factor authentication)?

A lot of two-factor authentication mechanisms use SMS to deliver single-use passphrase to the user. So how secure is it? Is it hard to intercept the SMS message containing the passphrase? Do mobile networks use any kind of encryption on SMS? I found…
Paul Podlipensky
  • 2,837
  • 4
  • 21
  • 25
112
votes
9 answers

Why can we still crack snapchat photos in 12 lines of Ruby?

Just came across this bit of ruby that can be used to decrypt Snapchat photos taken out of the cache on a phone, apparently adapted from here. To my surprise, it worked without a problem, considering the problems around Snapchat's security which…
Dmitri DB
  • 1,181
  • 2
  • 9
  • 12
84
votes
8 answers

Do advertisers listen as we talk?

A person talks about a certain thing (product or service) with another person and a short time after the talk the person gets the advertising of the discussed thing on the mobile or desktop device. I heard and read about such occurrences and didn't…
Evgeniy
  • 721
  • 1
  • 5
  • 6
78
votes
7 answers

Touch Screen Password Guessing by Fingerprint Trace

After eating some garlic bread at a friend's who is not security-aware, she managed to quickly determine the PIN code to unlock the screen of my Samsung SIII. She figured this out by simply holding the device against the light and looking at the…
Lex
  • 4,247
  • 4
  • 19
  • 27
75
votes
5 answers

I gave my cell number to a stranger on the internet. Have I fallen victim to a scam?

I was playing an online game and I came in contact with this user. She was listed as from the same country as me (Egypt). So when she asked me for my cell phone number, I gave it to her. I figured it was to add me on WhatsApp so we can chat or…
Dooma
  • 693
  • 1
  • 5
  • 8
71
votes
3 answers

Are smartphone apps theoretically capable of detecting what a user is looking at?

For instance, would it be possible for an app to determine what pixel range on a smartphone display a user is looking at by analysing their eyes with the front facing camera? If so, with what kind of precision? It would be very discomforting to know…
Laurent
  • 713
  • 1
  • 5
  • 7
70
votes
1 answer

How does end to end encryption work with whatsapp web?

Since today I have noticed whatsapp is using end to end encryption. However web.whatsapp.com is also still working. Does whatsapp establish a connection with my phone to keep things secure?
Mehdi Nellen
  • 863
  • 2
  • 7
  • 9
67
votes
4 answers

Are there any security risks in replying to an SMS message?

I routinely receive seemingly harmless SMS messages from unknown people. They're usually simple, like "Hi" or "Hello" or "Are you there?". This happens several times a week, and certainly often enough that it seems to be some sort of organized,…
Caleb
  • 649
  • 1
  • 5
  • 7
65
votes
10 answers

Should I be concerned about strange, new iPhone app appearing after repair?

I had my iPhone battery replaced in a phone repair shop. After collecting it, I noticed that there is a strange new app installed, some "Chinese" web browser. It has no alphanumeric name and nothing in the interface was in English. I spoke with the…
Rafi Rosa
  • 733
  • 1
  • 5
  • 9
64
votes
11 answers

Why don't websites and devices offer fake logins for hackers?

I was thinking about this earlier this morning and was wondering why websites and devices don't offer fake logins for hackers? What I mean by that is that if a hacker finds out some of your details and tries to log in to a website (for example) the…
Cromulent
  • 1,103
  • 1
  • 9
  • 13
64
votes
3 answers

Why aren't IMSI catchers rendered ineffective by standard MITM defenses?

There's been a lot of reporting in the past few years about law enforcement agencies using IMSI catchers (also known as Stingrays after a popular brand of them) to intercept cellular communications. If I understand correctly, what IMSI catchers do…
HighCommander4
  • 1,182
  • 1
  • 10
  • 11
63
votes
4 answers

Why do mobile devices force user to type password after reboot?

Nowadays, many mobile phones have supported unlocking through fingerprint recognition. However, both iOS and Android require users to enter the password after the device is rebooted, even though an authorized fingerprint is given. My question is:…
nalzok
  • 761
  • 1
  • 6
  • 11
56
votes
10 answers

Is it really safe to use Signal or Telegram on untrusted phone hardware?

How safe are we when we use phone hardware from untrusted manufacturers and use end-to-end encrypted communication like Signal and Telegram? Are our conversations really safe from keyloggers or spyware? And what is the best option to communicate…
mech
  • 587
  • 1
  • 4
  • 5
1
2 3
…
69 70