texting

iPhone SMS vulnerability not present in other OSes

Earlier this month, news surfaced that iPhones were more susceptible to spoofed SMS messages and phishing attempts via text, and now it seems the vulnerability is more or less exclusive to iOS.

That's according to research from mobile security firm AdaptiveMobile, which says it may be harder to spot spoofed texts and phishing attacks on the iPhone than on other mobile OSes. At issue is the fact that iOS displays the "reply to" number for received texts, which can be modified to make it appear as if a text message originated from a different number than it … Read more

Apple responds to iPhone SMS security vulnerability

Yesterday I reported on revelations that iPhones may be particularly vulnerable to an SMS spoofing attack. Basically, because of the way iOS handles text headers, a nasty person could manipulate the "reply-to" number to appear to be someone they're not, like a financial institution.

After a hacker revealed the vulnerability earlier this week, Engadget received this response from Apple on the matter:… Read more

iPhone SMS vulnerable, according to researcher

Ever received a text from your bank on your iPhone? You may want to take a closer look and make sure it's the real deal.

A hacker who goes by the handle "pod2g" says a security flaw has made receiving texts on an iPhone insecure since the inception of iOS, and that the vulnerability still remains in the latest beta of iOS 6.… Read more

Protect yourself from smishing (video)

We've all heard about phishing attacks -- those spammy e-mails you get in your in-box imploring you to divulge your personal information. Now those annoying scams are coming to a cell phone near you -- it's called smishing, or phishing via SMS text message.

Text messaging is the most common nonvoice use of a mobile phone, and scam artists are taking full advantage of that. In fact, according to security firm Cloudmark , about 30 million smishing messages are sent to cell phone users across North America, Europe, and the U.K. Smishing is part of the much larger … Read more

AppleScript fun: Previewing HTML from TextWrangler

If you edit HTML code on your Mac, you might find that Apple's text-handling programs like TextEdit may not suffice, especially since as a basic text editor it does not provide syntax-aware coloring, the option to collapse sections of code based on tags, and properly index lines of code. In addition, TextEdit relies on direct access to files from the Finder and cannot open remote files.

As a result of these limitations, alternative text-handling tools may be useful for managing HTML documents; one of the most popular is Bare Bones Software's TextWrangler (a free version of its powerful … Read more

Microsoft's crime-fighting tech for sale

McKayla is not impressed with Thursday's big tech stories:

Microsoft helped develop a surveillance system for New York that pulls in information from video camera footage, 9-1-1 calls, radiation detectors and license plate readers, and analyzes the data in real-time to better fight crime and terrorism. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the program, known as the Domain Awareness System, and it will be available to law enforcement agencies around the world (New York earns 30 percent of sales revenue). It doesn't use face-recognition software, but even still, some critics are worried officers could abuse this technology and … Read more

Texting isn't just for utility, it's a sport too

The Olympics aren't the only competition taking place this summer, there's also the U.S. LG National Texting Competition. And Austin Wierschke, 17, has become the reining champ for the second year in a row.

Wierschke, who hails from Rhinelander, Wis., is now deemed "the fastest texter in America," according to the Associated Press.

His secret? "Abnormally fast thumbs," he told the news source.

The competition, which takes place in New York's Times Square, tests texters on three skills: speed, accuracy, and dexterity. The thumb athletes must text blindfolded, know "text speak,&… Read more

HipGeo makes documenting your travels easy on iOS

HipGeo Travel Blog and Trip Journal (free) lets you tell the story of your vacation with images, videos, text, tags, and more all tied to your geolocation. You start by signing up through Facebook or Twitter, then you can choose people to share your travels with. If you just want to see the app in action before you take your trip (and see best practices from other users) you can use an explore button to check out blogs of popular or featured users, or look at posts from near your location.… Read more

Man texts 'I need to quit texting' before crash

Do you have premonitions? Do you sometimes just know bad things will happen, even though you have no idea how or why?

Please, then, show solidarity with Chance Bothe.

He both had a premonition that chance would not favor him and lived to tell the tale.

It seems that Bothe, a college student from Granado, Texas, was driving along a road and texting when something struck him: perhaps he shouldn't be driving along a road and texting.

As Today.com has it, he was having a texting row with a friend. Then he caught himself and texted: "I need to quit texting, because I could die in a car accident."… Read more