Saturday, August 20, 2011

Visualization: Where Does Mobile Malware Come From & How Do You Protect Yourself? [((tags: visualizations, mobile, security)(


Where Does Mobile Malware Come From & How Do You Protect Yourself? [Infographic]

Red Android 150x150.jpgWhat is mobile malware? Where does it come from? How does it get into your phone? These questions are just beginning to surface in the public mindset as splashy headlines warn smartphone users of the dangers lurking to take over their shiny, new mobile device. Security company BullGuard came up with a very informative infographic that shows where mobile malware comes from and how it spreads. Mobile malware does not come from malevolent a cupid shooting poison arrows into users' phones. Like PC viruses, malicious mobile programs are perpetrated by people that control botnets and want the information stored in your smartphone for their own means.


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Mobile malware can come from just about any vector you could think of. It lurks in application stores (especially third-party stores), text messages, emails, websites, search results and images. Some malware can snoop your device if you are on an insecure public Wi-Fi channel. Take a look at the infographic below and let us know what steps you take to protect your smartphone from those who would do it harm.

Several months ago we posted an infrographic titled "Where Does Your Malware Come From?" Just as with that infographic, we made sure to fact check this infographic (you would be surprised how much false, old or half-information these infographic makers try to slip by busy tech reporters) and the numbers check out. We have written about much of what is in the infographic over the last several months. See the very bottom of the image for BullGuard's sources, though note that no other security company is listed as a source of the information in the image. It looks like BullGuard has superseded some of the research of its competitors while still remaining technically accurate by sourcing it to various research organizations and institutions such as Juniper and the University of Virginia.

Check it out and tell us what you think:

State-of-Mobile-Malware.jpg

Visualization: Who Uses Google Plus Now? Yep, Male Students & Geeks From the US

Visualization: Who is Suing Whom In the Mobile Patent Wars

All vs all. Kinda silly really. 

Chart of the Day: Who is Suing Whom In the Mobile Patent Wars?

Patents are all the rage right now. More precisely, applying for, purchasing and suing the nearest competitor over patents is causing a craze in the mobile business environment. Did Google ever actually want the Nortel patents? Or did they just bet crazy sums (like Pi, the distance from the sun, etc.) because they knew they were going to acquire Motorola and its patent portfolio anyway? Next on line are the InterDigital patents, which are supposedly more in-depth and numerous than the Nortel or Novell patents. Some say we are in serious need of patent reform because the current ecosystem has become anti-innovation and toxic.

Thomson Reuters came out with a great chart yesterday that shows the current legal battleground for mobile patents. It is interesting to note who is getting sued and who is doing the suing. For instance, as much legal hot water that Google has been in, they are technically only being sued by Oracle over Java in the mobile realm. Microsoft has multiple suits going against Barnes & Noble, Foxconn (Apple's primary factory where iOS devices are made), Motorola and Inventec. Yet, Apple takes the crown. It is being sued, is suing, or has settled suits with five different corporations.


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Apple is being sued by Kodak and has settled a suit and countersuit with Nokia. Yet, Apple is in a suit and countersuit situation with most of the major Android OEMs (except, oddly, LG) - HTC, Samsung and Motorola. Samsung is having a devil of a time trying to keep its Galaxy Tab on store shelves across the world, with injunctions being filed in Australia and in the European Union, specifically by Germany and the Netherlands, both of whom want to keep all Galaxy devices off the shelves.

Microsoft is licensing patents to both HTC and Amazon (it worth noting that the Amazon vs. Apple legal battles do not involve actual patents and hence are not on this chart). The only entity on this list that appears to have escaped the patent wars is Qualcomm, which has already settled a suit and countersuit with Nokia. Qualcomm is a dark horse in this ecosystem because their chips power millions of devices and its owns (or owned) thousands of patents as well as a chunk of the wireless spectrum. They are, as they say, the straw that stirs the drink.

Who is missing off this list? Intel probably has some legal issues over patents, but not related to mobile. IBM and Cisco surely fall in here somewhere.

Take a look at the chart below. Outside of the nature of patent...

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Visualization: How Humanity Created So Much Data & Computable Knowledge


How Humanity Created So Much Data & Computable Knowledge (Infographic)

Steven Wolfram and team have gathered together a big timeline of key events in the history of systematic data and computable knowledge. The team has created a beautiful infographic and a five foot long poster available for mail order (I just bought one, $15 with shipping) in anticipation of the Wolfram Data Summit in DC early next month. We're really at the dawn of a whole new age of data creation, so this timeline will likely look like pre-history relatively soon, but it's fascinating and important none the less.

"[When] I first looked at the completed timeline," Wolfram writes, "the first thing that struck me was how much two entities stood out in their contributions: ancient Babylon, and the United States government... [It] is sobering to see how long the road to where we are today has been. But it is exciting to see how much further modern technology has already made it possible for us to go."


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datatimeline-1.jpg

Above: Click to view full timeline.

Wolfram argues that Artificial Intelligence has languished over the years, but that the body of data that's become available for computation has exploded. "[We] can just start from the whole corpus of systematic knowledge and data - as well as methods and models and algorithms - that our civilization has accumulated, poured wholesale into our computational system... this is what we have done with Wolfram|Alpha: in effect making immediate direct use of the whole rich history portrayed in the timeline."

We've written here for several years about the explosion of data production that's beginning and will be a major factor in determining the nature of human civilization in the near-term. In terms of sheer quantity, far more will be made measurable in the next few years than has been instrumented by any of the other developments on Wolfram's timeline. Google's Marissa Mayer calls the coming Internet of Things "bigger than Moore's law." Former HP CEO Mark Hurd said in 2009: "more data will be created in the next four years than in the history of the planet...

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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Monday, August 15, 2011

Tool: Apple’s Brazen Revenue Grab Boosts Open Web Apps

Apples "give us a cut" subscription policy is probably giving html5 -- for mobiles -- a boost. 

Apple’s Brazen Revenue Grab Boosts Open Web Apps