The Zen of Mobile

Opinion

Message to IT: Trusting Apple and Google for mobile app security is career suicide

Ready for the mobile security news that IT doesn't want to hear about but needs to? When security firm Positive Technologies started pen testing various mobile apps, security holes were rampant.

07/01/2019

News Analysis

That malware with its own backdoor into Android's framework? Don't worry; Google's on it. (Gulp!)

Google confirmed that cyberthieves had managed to pre-install malware into the Android framework backdoor. In short, the malware appeared to be blessed by Google at the deepest point within Android.

06/10/2019

Opinion

Forrester: Bank mobile apps frustrating, confusing

Mobile banking should be effortless, but Forrester Research says far too many banks offer frustrating apps and give little thought to how consumers should interact with their financial institutions.

05/22/2019

Opinion

Why I now hate my Apple Watch slightly less

The Apple Watch is still a wonderful device that has maddening flaws. But we have now found some unpublicized ways around some of those flaws. Watch life is now slightly better.

05/02/2019

Opinion

Why I've learned to hate my Apple Watch

In a perfect world, the Apple Watch Series 4 could be great. With a few easy settings, a glance at the watch would deliver time, temperature, the dial-in details for your next appointment or many other things that would be helpful....

04/22/2019

Opinion

Massive bank app security holes: You might want to go back to that money under the mattress tactic

A new report from a well-regarded payments consulting firm has found a lengthy list of security insanity while examining several major fintech company mobile apps.

04/05/2019

Opinion

Apple is learning why shortcut security is a bad idea

With its enterprise developer certificate program, Apple chose convenience over security. You can guess what happened.

02/20/2019

Opinion

With latest mobile security hole, could we at least focus on the right things?

A bunch of apps from some major players were recently tripped up by a security/privacy hole from a third-party analytics app. But everyone is focusing on the wrong lesson.

02/13/2019

Opinion

Next Android OS might allow app downgrade. This is a BIG deal.

Making apps downgradable would give IT just a little of its environment controls back. Just a little bit, but it's a start.

01/31/2019

Opinion

The enterprise ROI/TCO argument for mobile is getting a lot more interesting

In 2019, executives need to look anew at mobile and figure out what technology displacements make sense. For example, do companies need to buy expensive dedicated barcode scanners?

01/22/2019

Opinion

Apple's App Store privacy efforts are backfiring big time

Although Apple is trying to position itself as the consumer-privacy-friendly company, some have complained that it is doing it in far too heavy-handed a way.

12/12/2018

Opinion

eBay's ApplePay stats show why mobile payments are struggling

When eBay recently started giving customers the option to move away from paying with PayPal, something interesting happened.

12/10/2018

Opinion

When it comes to mobile, you pretty much have no privacy rights

Police are very persistent in trying to gain access to suspects' devices.

10/22/2018

Opinion

Stats make iOS a hard OS to ignore

Users are jumping to the latest iOS version faster than ever before. That means many things from an Apple marketing perspective, but for IT, it means far greater security.

10/16/2018

Opinion

Apple finally shares its automatic NFC launch capabilities, albeit in a very limited way

With iOS 12, Apple wants to share the ease-of-use magic of Apple Pay with the industry, via an SDK. Well, not quite, but it's starting along that path.

09/27/2018

News Analysis

Apple's mobile privacy letter to Congress omits an awful lot of context

Apple's letter was designed to alleviate congressional fears about the company invading its customers' privacy. But a close reading of the letter does the opposite.

08/28/2018

Opinion

Google and banks are being less than truthful about customer tracking

There are good and bad reasons to track someone's movements, but the best way to scream to users that you're spying on them is to lie about or not reveal what you're doing.

08/20/2018

Opinion

The limitless potential of mobile gesture communications — and how it will trip up users

Gesturing in the air near a mobile device is going to become the preferred mode of interaction. Long term, ease of use will soar, but before we get there, expect a lot of user errors.

07/24/2018

Opinion

Is mobile sensor-based authentication ready for the enterprise? Some big players think it might be.

An Arizona security company is working on an interesting approach to mobile authentication, one that leverages the exact angle a user holds the phone as a means of making replay attacks a lot more difficult.

07/19/2018

Opinion

With cashier-less checkout, retailers should be careful what they wish for

As the battle for cashier-less stores rages on, it's worth questioning whether an employee-less checkout system is something that retailers should truly want.

06/20/2018