Apps Driving Attention

The mobile platform, meaning tablets and smartphones, now account for 60% of total digital media time spent according to comScore. This is a 10 point jump from 50% just a year ago. On top of that, mobile apps accounted for 51% of all digital media time spent in May 2014. Many of the content categories like radio, photos and maps are becoming almost exclusively mobile. Digital radio and photos both generate 96% of their engagement from mobile while maps and instant messaging get 90% of interaction from mobile devices.

You might be wondering, like I did, where do social networks come in since it seem like almost everyone updates their social feeds through mobile. Social is actually the #1 category for overall digital engagement taking about 20% of overall digital time spent and gets 71% of it's activity from mobile. It, social media engagement on mobile, has grown 55% over the last year and has accounted for 31% of all growth of internet engagements.

So who is driving the mobile app explosion? Teenagers. About 60% of 12 to 17 year olds had a smartphone in 2013, topping even the 45+ crowd for smartphone ownership, according to Arbitron and Edison Research. The app money makers are not the initial charge for the program but all the in-app purchases along with the ads attached to the app.

Mobile is clearly the new way we consume digital content and continues to grow. We are also interacting with specific apps rather than browsing and those apps are growing at an amazing pace. Today's infrastructure needs to be even more flexible, intelligent and resilient to handle the surge. And ultimately, the apps and the content/experience they provide need to be highly available and delivered quickly and securely to the person...just like any other typical application.

ps

Related:

• Major Mobile Milestones in May: Apps Now Drive Half of All Time Spent on Digital
• Who's driving the mobile app economy? Our kids
• Invasion of Privacy - Mobile App Infographic Style
• The Applications of Our Lives
• What's in Your Smartphone?

Technorati Tags: mobile,apps,tablet,smartphone,social media,humans,society,silva,security

 

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The One Millionth Mobile Malware

Milestone has been breached according to Trend Micro.  Just a few months ago, they reported in their 2Q Security Roundup that there were 718,000 malicious or risky Andriod mobile apps available (up from 509,000 in Q1) and crystal-ball'd that the million mobile malware milestone would be reached by the end of 2013.  Well, it came a couple months early. 

Contained in that million are straight pieces of malware, those that abuse premium services like sending unauthorized text messages to certain numbers and registering people to costly services along with high-risk apps, those that aggressively serve ads that lead to dubious sites.  They found that 75% perform outright malicious routines, while another 25% exhibit dubious routines, which include adware. 

The most infamous malware families included FAKEINST at 34% and OPFAKE at 30%.  FAKEINST is typically disguised as a legitimate app and was responsible for the fake Bad Piggies versions, which were found right after the game’s release.  They can also register users for costly services by sending unauthorized text messages to those services for enrollment.    in its ability to wolf legitimate apps clothing but it was also able to launch a web page that asks the person to download a potentially malicious file.  Those are the primary risks but there are many others with this type of malware.  Such fun.

For the high risk apps, ARPUSH came in at 33% and LEADBLT garnered 27% of the total.  These are known to steal data like GPS location and OS information along with delivering malware.   

The threats don't stop with these gems.  Crooks are also looking to hijack mobile banking transactions with FAKEBANK and FAKETOKEN malware variants.  They like to spoof legitimate financial apps along with the ever popular phishing notices enticing people to enter personal info.

And I thought mobile devices were supposed to make our lives easier.  Hmm.  The dedicated circuit of a couple cans with high speed twine (HST) sounds a lot more secure these days. 

ps

Related:

• Mobile Malware, High-Risk Apps Hit 1M Mark
• 2Q Security Roundup: Mobile Flaws Form Lasting Security Problems
• Mobile Malware, High-Risk Apps Hit 1 Million Mark: Trend Micro
• Mobile Malware Issues Persist as Devices Remain Exposed
• Malicious apps, mobile malware reaches 1 million mark
• Mobile Security Apps Perform Dismally against Spyware
• OpFake, FakeInst Android Malware Variants Continue to Resist Detection
• A Look at Mobile Banking Threats
• Mobile Threats Rise 261% in Perspective
• Where Do You Wear Your Malware?
• Q. The Safest Mobile Device? A. Depends
• The Malware Mess
• Can two cans and a string really be used to talk over a distance?

Technorati Tags: mobile,malware,adware,smartphone,privacy,security,risk,byod,threats,android,ios,silva,trendmicro

 

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Bring Your Own A-Z

The #BYO craze has taken the world by storm and now infiltrates every sector of out lives.  Here is a partial list, in alpha-order, of various bring your owns.

BYO Apple: For the teacher in your life, the princess you'd like to put to sleep or to keep the doctor away for a day.

BYO Beer: The original classic, college style.  And BYO Booze for when you're out of college and got a little cash.

BYO Candy: With Halloween approaching this could see a surge over the next 30 days.

BYO Device: Or danger, destruction, demolition, detonator or any other dastardly 'D' word to represent risk.

BYO Everything: When Internet of Things takes over our lives.  Chocolate Chips have a whole new meaning.

BYO Food: The newest Potluck Parties.

BYO Game: Actually sitting at a table playing the physical versions of Monopoly, Life, Candy Land, Scrabble, or any other favorite.

BYO Hacker: Bodyguards in the 21st Century.

BYO Intelligence: Actually using your brain to figure out something...or when AI robots take over the world.

BYO Jump Drive: A whistleblower's favorite.

BYO Kittens: For making that irresistible, can't-stop-watching, almost viral video.

BYO Litigation: The new term for Small Claims Court.

BYO Money: What Cash with be called 10 years from now.

BYO N: BYO's maximum amount.  As far as BYOingly possible.

BYO OMG: The Surprise Party.

BYO Presents: What you take to the BYO OMG.

BYO Quarrel: The updated version of an older brother's favorite 'Stop Hitting Yourself.'

BYO Raven: Quoth he.

BYO Sushi: The new 'Gone Fishing' Bumper sticker.

BYO Time: It's all relative anyway.

BYO Utopia: Happiness comes from within.

BYO Vacation: The latest Griswold adventure this time with a Hybrid LTD Country Squire.

BYO Warnings: Wouldn't be cool if everyone had to announce the hazards of interacting with them? 

BYO X: Half of a Tic-Tac-Toe game or how Hawaiians greet each other.

BYO Yawn: What you did right now when you read this entry.

BYO Zombie: Pretty much anyone walking around fully engaged with their BYOD.

Well that was fun.  C'mon play along - it's easy and works with almost any word!

ps

Related:

• How Terms Have Changed over Time
• BYOD Injuries
• BYOD–The Hottest Trend or Just the Hottest Term
• Is BYO Already D?
• Will BYOL Cripple BYOD?
• Freedom vs. Control
• The Prosecution Calls Your Smartphone to the Stand

Technorati Tags: byod,mobile,smartphone,lists,humor,fun,byo,silva,human,society,mam,mdm

 

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BYOD Injuries

This BYOD installment brought to you by, Bring Your Own Doctor

Is your mobile device so attractive that you can't keep your eyes off it?  Is every phone call so life changing that you are unaware of your surroundings?  Do you constantly have to update social media as if you were on a reality series?  Do you feel useless unless you are tapping away on a touch screen?  Have you come close to being in a bad accident due to being in a world of your own?  If you answered 'yes,' then you might be a perfect candidate for the hot new mobile companion, Bring Your Own Doctor!!

Pedestrian injuries related to cell phone use are on the rise.  Have you ever been so involved with your mobile device that you've bumped into, tripped over, fallen off, fallen in or hit by something because you were not paying attention to where you were going?  You are not alone.  A recent study shows that pedestrian cell phone-related injuries have more than doubled since 2005.  Typically we hear of the horrors of using your mobile device while driving; the risk of personal devices on corporate networks; the dangers of downloading malicious apps and now distracted walking is becoming yet another hazard of this mobile craze.

They looked at seven years of emergency room data (2004-2010) from 100 hospitals around the country which showed that bodily injuries (in public places, not at home) related to cell phones ranged from falling off walkways or bridges to walking in front of moving traffic.  In 2010 the study found that 1,500 pedestrians were treated in emergency rooms for cell-phone related incidents, as opposed to 559 in 2004. The number has risen every year and could easily double again for the 2010-2015 time frame.  The actual injuries are probably higher since many people are hurt and do not visit the ER.  The under 30 crowd, specially those between the ages of 16 and 25, are the most at risk. 

Are you surprised?  I'm not.  Everywhere you go, people have their devices out and head's down.  People will go to the park, only to sit on the bench with their phones out.  You can find plenty of 'falling into the mall fountain' YouTube videos due to people in a stare down contest with their phone.  For pedestrians, talking on the phone accounted for about 69% of injuries, verses texting, which accounted for about 9%.  This is not because texting is necessarily safer than talking and walking.  Instead, it is probably because less people actually text while walking than talk while on foot.  A couple of the injuries reported included a 14-year-old boy walking down a road while talking on a cell phone fell 6 to 8 feet off a bridge into a rock-strewn ditch, suffering chest and shoulder injuries.  A 23-year-old man was struck by a car while walking on the middle line of a road and talking on a cell phone, injuring his hip.  I'm sure you have your own story of some trip, slip or busted lip due to distracted mobile use. 

We usually hear about the digital dangers of mobile use along with the dreaded distracted driver and now there's proof that putting one foot in front of the other - the crowning achievement of any infant - has too, succumbed to technology. 

ps

Related:

• Study: Cell phone-related pedestrian injuries soar
• Distracted Walking: Injuries Soar for Pedestrians on Phones
• Texting While Walking Accidents: Video
• Girl Falls In Mall Fountain While Texting
• The New Wallet: Is it Dumb to Carry a Smartphone?
• Freedom vs. Control

Technorati Tags: byod,mobile,smartphone,injuries,emergency room,doctor,silva,f5,distracted

 

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Back to School BYOB Style

Bring Your Own Brain 
According to a study conducted by Harris Interactive and Pearson, 90% of today’s elementary, middle and high school students believe that mobile devices will change the way students learn in the future (92%) and make learning more fun (90%).  The majority (69%) of those same students would like to use mobile devices more in the classroom.
One-third of grades 4-12 students said that they have used a tablet for school work this academic year (34% have used a full-size tablet and 32% have used a small tablet), while 44% said they have used a smartphone for school work. Among students who use a tablet for school work, 52% use a device that they own personally, rather than borrow from the school and 70% would like to use mobile devices more often in their classrooms.  Only one in six say that their school provides the tablets.
The Pearson Student Mobile Device Survey was conducted to better understand how students use mobile technology for learning. The survey focused on how students use the mobile devices they currently own for learning, and how they would like to use those devices in the future. The survey asked students from grade 4 through college about the mobile devices that they own and intend to buy; how they currently use mobile devices for school work and how they expect to use them in the future; and their attitudes towards tablets for learning.
Teachers also love technology.  Onlineuniversities.com reports that 90% of teachers have a laptop or PC in the classroom and 60% have access to an interactive whiteboard.  35% have tablets or e-readers in the classroom, up from 20% just a year ago and 71% say that apps are beneficial for teaching.  65% indicate that technology lets them demonstrate things they could not show any other way.  It allows them to reinforce or expand on content, helps motivate students and accommodates multiple learning styles.
Research shows that students who are exposed to media-rich content in the classroom (like video), outperform non-exposed peers on tests, are more active in class discussions, and apply more varied approaches to problem solving.  By 2017, streaming video will represent the majority of all mobile traffic – and if school BYOD programs continue to be successful, much of this traffic could come from the classroom.
ps
Related:

• New Study Reveals U.S. Students Believe Strongly That Mobile Devices Will Improve Education
• Pearson Student Mobile Device Survey 2013 (pdf)
• The Current State Of Technology In The Classroom [Infographic]
• Teachers Love Technology
• Why video is the unlikely common denominator in ed-tech

Technorati Tags: byod,mobile,smartphone,tablet,classroom,education,school,learning,teachers,students,silva,video

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Hackable Homes

Is your house vulnerable?  Imagine coming home, disarming the alarm system, unlocking your doors and walking into a ransacked dwelling.  There are no broken windows, no forced entry, no compromised doggie doors and really no indication that an intruder had entered.  Welcome to your connected home.  I stop short of calling it a 'smart' home since it's not yet intelligent enough to keep the bad guys out.  From smartphone controlled front door locks to electrical outlets to security cameras to ovens, refrigerators and coffee machines, internet connected household objects are making their way into our homes.  Our TVs, DVDs and DVRs are already.  And anything connected to the internet, as we all know, is a potential target to be compromised.

Researchers have shown how easy it is to infect automobiles and it is only a matter of time before crooks and a little bit of code will be able to watch you leave your driveway, disable your alarms, unlock your door, steal your valuables and get out with minimal trace.  Those CSI/NCIS/Criminal Minds/L&O crime dramas will need to come up with some new ideas on how to solve the mystery during the trace-evidence musical montages.  The hard-nosed old timer is baffled by the fact that there is nothing to indicate a break-in except for missing items.  Is the victim lying for insurance fraud?  Could it have been a family member?  Or simply a raccoon?  A real who-done-it!  Until, of course, the geeky lab technician emerges from their lair with a laptop showing how the hacker remotely controlled the entire event.  'Look Boss, zeros and ones!'

Many of these remotely controlled home devices use a wireless communications protocol called Z-Wave.  It's a low power radio wave that allows home devices to communicate with each other and be controlled remotely over the internet.  Last year, 1.5 million home automation products were sold in the US and that is expected to grow to 8 million in less than 5 years.  An estimated 5 million Z-Wave devices will be shipped this year. 

Like any communications protocol, riff-raff will attempt to break it, intercept it and maliciously control it.  And as the rush to get these connected devices in consumer's hands and homes grows, security protections may lag.  I often convey that the hacks of the future just might involve your refrigerator.  Someone takes out all the internet enabled fridges on the West Coast and there is a food spoilage surge since no one owns legacy fridges any more....let alone Styrofoam coolers.   

ps

Related:

• 'Smart homes' are vulnerable, say hackers
• The five scariest hacks we saw last week
• From Car Jacking to Car Hacking
• The Prosecution Calls Your Smartphone to the Stand
• Mobile Threats Rise 261% in Perspective
• Q. The Safest Mobile Device? A. Depends
• Holiday Shopping SmartPhone Style
• SmartTV, Smartphones and Fill-in-the-Blank Employees

Technorati Tags: blackhat,hacks,vulnerabilities,breach,home,house,smart phone,smart technology,silva,security,z-wave,smart devices,household

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Corporate Mobile Data and BYOD Infographic(s)

Very busy week so I figured I'd re-source a couple of recent infographics that I found interesting and timely. 

Courtesy: http://www.druva.com/blog/state-of-corporate-mobile-data

 

Courtesy: http://www.viaresource.com/media/20307/byod--risks_-trends-and-skills-in-byod-security.png

Have a great week! 

ps

Technorati Tags: byod,infographic,privacy,mobile device,social media,identity theft

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