Thousands of Law Enforcement Agencies Use Phone Cracking Tools

Upturn, a non-profit focused on the use of technology by police, used over 110 public records filed with law enforcement departments across the country to figure out how many of them use phone cracking tools, or mobile device forensic tools (MDFTs).

Based on 110 public records requests to state and local law enforcement agencies across the country, our research documents more than 2,000 agencies that have purchased these tools, in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. We found that state and local law enforcement agencies have performed hundreds of thousands of cellphone extractions since 2015, often without a warrant.

Kelly and I will definitely share our thoughts in this week’s Security Friday.

Xfinity Mobile Expands its 5G Network Across the Nation

Xfinity Mobile has expanded its 5G network nationwide, and offers 5G data plans. One is a By-the-Gig shared data starting at 1GB for US$15, 3GB for US$30 and 10GB for US$60, or Unlimited for US$45 per month per line.

Xfinity Mobile customers already have access to the fastest Internet at home with Xfinity Internet, and now they can access a fast nationwide 5G network when they are on the go.

You May Soon be Able to Use Your iPhone on The Moon

There’s lots of excitement about 5G here on Earth. However, Cult of Mac reported that there may soon be 4G on the moon.

Rather than going with something exotic, NASA picked Nokia to build a wireless communication system based on LTE. This is the same standard used by today’s iPhones and other handsets. Nokia points out that LTE has proven to be reliable over years of use on Earth, and it’s scalable and easily deployable. “The system could support lunar surface communications at greater distances, increased speeds, and provide more reliability than current standards,” NASA wrote when approving the plan.= Cell towers on the moon will be integrated into the lunar lander built by Intuitive Machines. “The solution has been specially designed to withstand the harsh conditions of the launch and lunar landing, and to operate in the extreme conditions of space,” Nokia said in a statement. “The fully integrated cellular network meets very stringent size, weight and power constraints of space payloads in an extremely compact form factor.”

Washington D.C. Rolls Out App-Free COVID-19 Tracking System

Washington D.C. has launched its COVID-19 tracking system. As AppleInsider noted, it does not use a standalone app but exposure notifications built into iOS from iOS 13.7

The Washington DC system functions similarly to others seen in the past, including Pennsylvania’s COVID alert PA. When someone tests positive for COVID-19, they are given an anonymized code via the health department. The code, when entered into DC CAN, will send alerts to anyone who has met the minimum threshold for exposure. Currently, the minimum threshold for exposure is met when someone is within six feet or less of an infected person for a minimum of 15 minutes. Android users can download the app from the Google Play store. Apple iPhone users just need to opt into the exposure notification system, and turn on notification alerts for the Washington, DC region in their iPhone’s settings.

The Complete RapidWeaver 8 Bundle: $49.99

We have a deal on the Complete RapidWeaver 8 Bundle, which includes RapidWeaver 8 itself and four training packages. RapidWeaver 8 is a website development tool, and the training packages include responsive site design, SEO, a course on online blogging, and a video editing course. The bundle is $49.99 through our deal.

Video Stabilizer App ‘Emulsio’ Gets iOS 14 Update

Emulsio is a video stabilizer app from Creaceed and recently got an update. Version 3.5 offers a fully exposed video encoder that provides several important features: user-adjustable output file format, custom bitrate/quality setting, video and audio codec choices, and output resolution adjustment. The new Transcode extension now allows re-encoding existing videos at a desired quality/size level. Further enhancements include a better video import handling using the new & more capable iOS 14 photo/video picker to easily browse and search through the video library.

Antitrust Lawsuit Reveals Apple-Google Search Relationship

The U.S. government has sued Google, saying the company is a monopoly that uses its power to crush competition in search. Mark Gurman writes about the money that Google pays Apple for it to be the default search engine. I’ve been disappointed in this, because a lawsuit from previous years alleges Google pays Apple around US$12 billion to be the default. Apple can do better.

The details, many of which have not been disclosed before, may support the U. S. government’s allegation that Google uses these agreements to block out search rivals and give consumers less choice. Google called the government’s case “deeply flawed” and said it would hurt consumers because it would “artificially prop up” lower-quality search options.

Artificially prop up lower-quality search options. Wouldn’t paying Apple be artificially propping up Google? I spent a day drinking beer and eating potato chips watching Bill Gates’ deposition for fun. I’m sure the one with Sundar Pichai will be equally entertaining.

Apple Removed a Third Party Google Stadia App

StApple recently removed Stadium, an app that let people use Google Stadia’s game streaming service on iOS.

Specifically, Knox says Apple objects to how his app is “extending WebKit with native APIs to connect with Bluetooth.” This is what allowed the app to connect Bluetooth controllers to Stadia. Apple’s ruling appears to refer to section 4.7 of Apple’s App Store guidelines, which governs web-based games on the platform.

At first I thought it was removed because some random non-Google party created a Google service workaround. But it sounds like it’s more because of API specifics, or at least that’s the official Apple statement.

Address Bar Spoofing Bugs Surface on Mobile Browsers

A number of address bar spoofing vulnerabilities have surface on mobile browsers, and Rafay Baloch wrote about them. There was one found in Safari but Apple patched it in September with iOS 13.6. The other bugs mostly concern Opera.

With ever growing sophistication of spear phishing attacks, exploitation of browser-based vulnerabilities such as address bar spoofing may exacerbate the success of spear phishing attacks and hence prove to be very lethal. First and foremost, it is easy to persuade the victim into stealing credentials or distributing malware when the address bar points to a trusted website and giving no indicators forgery, secondly since the vulnerability exploits a specific feature in a browser, it can evade several anti-phishing schemes and solutions.

AT&T Boss Says Tech Giants Have Too Much Power in Streaming

AT&T boss John Stankey has said that tech giants, including Apple, hold too much power over streaming. He made the comments, reported by the Daily Mail at the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live event.

Where the bottlenecks are sometimes occurring are in these commercial agreements,’ Stankey said during the Wall Street Journal’s annual Tech Live event Monday that was hosted online due to the pandemic.’ We should ask ourselves, is that friction somebody really feeling their oats and maybe having market power above and beyond what’s reasonable for innovation?’ he added. HBO max launched in late May as a new video app, similar to Amazon Video, Apple TV+ and Disney+ seeking to profit of the demand for online TV, and offers series like Friends, The Big Bang Theory and HBO’s library of original TV series.   AT&T is trying to grow their HBO Max subscriber base and convince existing viewers to switch to the Max app. This provides AT&T with better profits than the meek HBO line-up offered through cable partners like Comcast.’Our focus probably needs to be on equity of rules and engagement,’ Stanke said Monday.

Magnetic Fidget Lightning Cable 3-Pack: $51.99

We have a deal on a clever Lightning cable called the Magnetic Fidget Cable. It’s a 3-foot Lightning cable, and the cable has magnets all along its length that allow it to coil automatically. You can also unwind just the amount you need at any given time. Or, you could just play with it. Oh, and it glows in the dark. I’m linking to the USB-A-to-Lightning, but there are also non-glowing and USB-C options you can choose on the deal listing. Our deal is for a 3-pack of cables for $51.99. The non-glow models are $46.99 for a three pack.