The Geek The Ory

In the face of growing cybersecurity threats, many businesses are desperate for ways to protect themselves from severe financial losses created by malicious attacks. Many are even turning to insurance companies for help. According to PwC, the market for cyber insurance  is projected to hit $7.5 billion by 2020. But while these enterprises are hoping insurance companies can help mitigate losses, those insurance organizations are also seeking ways to protect themselves from emerging security threats. These businesses haven’t solved their own challenges regarding mobile security and the need for better insurance apps and data solutions. This is especially true when it comes to supporting employees and improving security as well as their productivity. Between insurance apps, claims management software and other business solutions relevant to their industry, insurance brands are eager to adopt technologies that address today’s security threats. Here are some ways i...

We’re living in an increasingly mobile world. According to recent research from Sapho, three-quarters of companies allow employees to use personal devices for work , and employees who enjoy this workplace benefit save 81 minutes per week on the job. With this convenience and enhanced productivity, however, comes a business risk: If an employee’s personal mobile device is lost or stolen, unauthorized parties can easily access sensitive data stored in email and other applications. Here’s why data encryption on personally owned devices is so important and how better employee data protection protects both the business and its staff. Why mobile data encryption matters The mobile devices we use to check sports scores and order takeout can feel so closely linked with our personal lives that, at times, we might underestimate the considerable risks they pose from a business security standpoint. Make no mistake: The risks are real. Because these devices are getting smaller ...

Despite hitting a record 10 million sales in the second quarter of 2015, Microsoft's phone division is in trouble. Competitors, including Apple and Google, are pushing the envelope even further, leaving Microsoft in the dust. Redmond has seemingly chosen to produce only low-end phones with a flagship phone conspicuously absent from the current lineup. A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission  highlights just how bad things have become. Microsoft acquired Nokia back in 2013 for around $7.2 billion (a figure which has since risen to over $9 billion, according to the filing) and the division, named "Phone Hardware", brought in $1.4 billion in Q3 2015 with the cost of revenue exceeding that figure by $4 million. This means that Microsoft lost around 12 cents per phone according to analysts, even before R&D costs, among other expenses, are applied, despite exceptional unit sales. The filing talks of a potent write-off of the Nok...

When recently-appointed president of RSA, Amit Yoran, opened his company’s flagship conference yesterday, he warned the security industry was living in the dark ages. Protections just aren’t working, he said. Various anti-virus firms, including big names like Kaspersky and Webroot, have offered proof that the market’s many players get it wrong; they’re on a list of companies whose Google Play Android apps don’t do proper encryption checks, according to research from the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) at Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute. The CERT discovered a whopping 22,000 apps that weren’t carrying out “SSL validation”, where the software is supposed to check certificates over encrypted communications to ensure the parties involved are verified.  Kaspersky’s Internet Security app  and  Webroot’s free offering  and its  “complete” tool  (an apt name, perhaps?) both failed to carry out these checks, mea...

Google is trying to shake up the wireless phone industry with a low-priced service designed to pressure major carriers into making it more affordable for people to get online and use Google's services. The service, called "Project Fi," debuted Wednesday, about two months after Google revealed its plans to expand its ever-growing empire into providing wireless connections for smartphones. Google Inc. is selling the basic phone service for $20 a month and will only charge customers for the amount of cellular  data  that they use each month, instead of a flat rate. Each gigabyte of data will cost $10 a month. That means a customer could sign up for a plan offering three gigabytes of data and get $20 back if only one gigabyte was used in a month. Most wireless phone carriers allow their customers to roll over unused data into another month of service without refunding any money. Project Wi-Fi initially will only be sold to a narrow audience that owns the Nexus 6, ...

You may not be the only one swiping fingerprints on your Galaxy S5. Criminals could be doing it, too, and without your knowledge. Researchers at FireEye discovered a serious flaw in some Androidphones — not just the Galaxy S5, though other affected models weren’t named. While fingerprint data is locked away in Android’s trusted storage area, the biometric scanner itself is exposed. With the right access, a criminal can perform a man-in-the-middle attack and siphon off scans while they’re in transit. Resident malware does the dirty work silently in the background. Once criminals have acquired those tasty bits, “you can generate the image of [the] fingerprint,” Yulong Zhang explained. He added “after that you can do whatever you want.” Scary, right? It would be, if not for a few important caveats. First, this particular flaw was fixed in Android 5.0. Most new devices are shipping with Lollipop pre-installed, and it’s been rolling out to more older ...