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Apple iOS 13, Venmo Scams, Simjacking Attacks
You’re listening to the Shared Security Podcast, exploring the trust you put in people, apps, and technology…with your host, Tom Eston. In episode 87 for September 22nd 2019: Everything you need to know about Apple iOS 13, Venmo scams you need to be aware of, and new details about “Simjacking” attacks
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Welcome to the Shared Security Weekly Blaze Podcast where we update you on this week’s most important cybersecurity and privacy news. These podcasts are published every Monday and are 15 minutes or less quickly giving you “news that you can use”.
Last week Apple released iOS 13 to the public which also happened to include a passcode bypass vulnerability which allows you to view the contacts on a locked Apple device. In order to conduct the attack you would need access to someone’s device and go through a series of steps, which by the way, would not be that easy to pull off by someone who had physical access to your device. Steps include replying to an incoming call with a custom message, enabling and disabling the VoiceOver feature, adding a new contact to a custom message, and then viewing the contacts information. This of course is not the first time we’ve seen passcode bypass vulnerabilities in Apple iOS, there were two that were patched in iOS 12 as well. Apple will most likely patch this vulnerability in the first update to iOS 13 which will probably happen in the next few weeks.
Besides this particular issue, the iOS 13 update comes with several new privacy enhancements including the much anticipated “Sign in with Apple” feature which can create an anonymous email address for you when signing up for new apps and services. Also, phone calls from apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp will have more restrictions in the way that they run in the background to prevent them from collecting user data without permission. Speaking of permissions, someone noticed while testing the new iOS update that an unexpected notification popped up on their device stating that Facebook would like to use your Bluetooth wireless. Why on Earth would Facebook need access to your Bluetooth? Well apparently, some apps are tracking your physical location and the proximity you are to other people’s smartphones. Potential uses of this data could include deeper analysis of the people around you and their relationships. Not only that but it could also be used to serve you ads and I could even see the potential use in Facebook’s new dating service in which having location services turned on is a requirement. Now this “feature” has been going on for quite some time and it’s not just Facebook. YouTube just so happens to be doing the same thing.
Do you use the popular peer-to-peer payment app, Venmo? If you are, then you need to be aware of a new text message based phishing scam that directs you to a fake Venmo website. Here’s how it works. You’ll receive a text message saying that your Venmo account is about to be charged and if you
Published on 6 years, 3 months ago