Cyberthieves enter a new frontier

As today’s society continues to turn more mobile, cyberthieves are not far behind. They realize that most of today’s population leans more towards mobile phone (smartphones) or mobile devices to communicate. Young men are becoming their target because on average, men between the ages of 18 and 31 spend 49 hours a week online. They are nicknamed the “millennium males”. 

They say, that the android operating system that google created, which runs on various different types of phones and tablets is vulnerable to cybertheft, and people should be careful of what they are using it for. A lot of the problems are coming from third party marketplaces posting apps, and once they are downloaded on someone’s device, they can start having problems because these aren’t monitored as carefully. Now that most consumers of mobile devices and smartphones are using them for things such as online shopping, email, online banking, etc, they should be aware of the risks and careful when posting personal information online. 

I thought that this was an interesting article because of the relevancy in today’s society. Everything is done over the internet, and a lot of people don’t understand that there are a lot of risks involved with that. I think it’s important for people to realize that things over the internet are not private - they must be coming from a trusted source. Cyberthief is becoming more and more popular, and can lead to other things such as identity theft.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/cyberthieves-enter-a-new-frontier---mobile-devices/article2263982/

RIM has been going through so many problems lately, but they are keeping the biggest market share in Canada for smart phones. RIM has been watching the numbers a lot lately, and are noticing that android’s and apple phones are close behind, and that they cannot afford any more system glitches that affect all of their consumers at once. 40% of consumers own a smartphone, when looking at shares of each company (ie. android, apple, and RIM) each company has shown a lot of growth and are all working to make more sales.

I think that this gives RIM hope, they have 35.8 percent of smartphone users. I think that a lot of blackberry users have faith in what RIM can do, and it is possible for the company to turn things around for their consumers.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/canada-still-a-blackberry-nation/article2255856/

India Asks Facebook to Screen User Content

The government in India has asked social networking sites such as Facebook to prescreen all user content and remove “disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory content” before it gets posted.

There have been several posts on social media cites that are considered “unacceptable” to the indian government. These pages are posting things that are talking about the president  in a negative context. The president is wanting there to be a screening process to monitor what is being put into the public mind about him and his political party. He was expecting them to use humans to monitor the cites and no a form of technology screening. 

The three companies that the indian government have approached about the problem with content going up onto their websites, are prepared to tell the indian government that based on how much content is user generated in today’s society there is no real way to monitor everything that gets posted.

This is becoming a problem for many other governments. Content control is nearly impossible to keep under control with the use of social networking tools in today’s society.

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/india-asks-google-facebook-others-to-screen-user-content/?ref=technology

Courts bar RIM form using BBX trademark

A software company in New York has had BBX as a trademark, and the US court system has filed a restraining order temporarily against RIM, which states that they are not able to use this any longer. This is tight timing for RIMm they are at a DevCon in Singapore today (dec. 7th) and tomorrow where they were planning to announce their new smartphone platform as BBX. Luckily, RIM has thought quickly, and today will be announcing their new line of blackberry’s as “Blackberry 10”. BBX is the new operating system that RIM was planning on launching with their new line of Blackberry’s, apparently Basis International has had this trademarked, and has threated to take legal action against RIM before if they do not stop using it. RIM refused, which is why Basis International has filed for the restraining order against them. 

Apple to lose iPad Trademark in China

Apple is currently facing a $1.6 billion lawsuit. Proview Technology Inc. (PTI), a Shenzhen company, is claiming that Apple is guilty of copyright infringement for PTI’s trademarked “iPad” name associated with a product of their own.
Apple rebutted with the argument that when they had purchased the right to the “iPad” name from PTI global last year that the trademark included China in this deal.
Apparently this is not the first case where Apple has been charged with trademark conflicts. In 2007, the iPhone ran into the same issues Comwave Telecom Inc., an internet telephone service company based in Toronto.
So, although this is nothing new, it has real potential to set Apple at a significant disadvantage as they try to “establish a foothold in the world’s largest marketplace”. It will be interesting to see how this will play out as Apple is such a globally recognized company and the iPad is their newest product.

http://business.financialpost.com/2011/12/06/apple-to-lose-ipad-trademark-in-china-report/

Twitter Working to Improve Security

Twitter has taken on a “start-up” software company, called Whisper Systems. They create software that will increase security and privacy for twitter when using with smart-phones and other mobile devices. Whisper Systems was created last year by two security experts, and is excited about creating software to protect microblogging via twitter. 

Twitter published a statement on monday saying “The Whisper Systems team is joining Twitter starting today. As part of our fast-growing engineering team, they will be bringing their technology and security expertise to Twitter’s products and services. We’re happy to have Moxie and Stuart onboard”. Twitter has rapidly grown in the last year, they have more then 100 million active users. Twitter has been adapted by several different group of people, it has become a vital communication tool for celebrities, businesses, and politicians - as well as student groups, and schools are starting to adapt to using twitter as a main method of communications. 

As much as any other online communication tool, the users are worried about their privacy and security online. Whisper Systems is there to ensure that mobile twitter users are able to trust the company, and are able to use the twitter apps, and twitter via web without much worry of someone hacking into their information.

I think that this was a good decision for twitter to bring on these two experts, but I think users should still be aware of the risk that everyone takes by posting things online. It will stay with you forever and you want to ensure that it is information that you want available to the world.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/mobile-technology/twitter-acquires-mobile-security-start-up-whisper-systems/article2252299/

RIM Disappointments

I just wanted to add to what Natasha had to say regarding the current problems that RIM is having with their sales/products.


As natasha touched on RIM thought that their launch of brand new blackberry’s last august would be able to keep them going through their fourth fiscal quarter (which covers christmas this year). They have had to make adjustments to how they think there numbers will be reflected in the coming months. Over the last year, RIM has had to adjust their numbers lower for the third time. RIM is Canada’s largest technology company, and this has affected their stock very negatively. 


They have had to get external analyst come in and figure out if there is anything that they could be doing better - each time that this has happened the analyst have questioned the role of the CEO’s and how they are directing the company. It is becoming a close call, to whether or not Blackberry/RIM is going to be able to recover from their recent troubles. Their shipment numbers have declined and continue to do so, based on their previous years numbers. 

I think that although RIM has been going through a hard time, and by the sounds of things won’t last for that much longer as a primary share of the mobile market, I don’t think that Blackberry’s will go away. They are too relevant to a lot of people’s everyday lives. When comparing blackberry to iphones, form a personal perspective, I think that they both have their advantages and disadvantages, but I believe that it is mostly based on what you use it for and the lifestyle that you need a smartphone for. Personally, I think Blackberry is a better fit for what I use my phone for. I have my fingers crossed that RIM will be able to recover.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/rim-finds-new-ways-to-disappoint-investors/article2257745/?from=sec431