Smartphones facing heightened security woes

The latest report from Juniper reveals that smartphones have resulted in a major jump in the number of mobile phone related security threats including WiFi attacks.

With smartphones getting sophisticated and gradually replacing PCs as the preferred mode of both personal and professional computing, cyber criminals have turned their attention to these mobile devices, reveals the Malicious Mobile Threats Report 2011 of Juniper research. 

One of the key findings of the report is that the enterprise and consumer mobile devices are exposed to a record number of security threats, including a 400 per cent increase in Android Malware as well as highly targeted WiFi attacks. 

RIM extends Playbook tablets warranty to two years

RIM launches special warranty plans for Blackberry playbook users that includes protection against accidents and user mishandling also.

Research In Motion, the makers of BlackBerry, has announced newer warranty plans for its Playbook tablet computer, extending it to two years from the current one year term. 

Earlier, Playbook buyers were given only 90 days of technical support and one year of limited hardware support.

With this new plan, they can have two years of technical support and hardware warranty, which not only provides additional protection against manufacturing defects but also covers accidental damages such as screen breaks too. 

The plan, however, is optional and is available only for the United States and Canada users, who are required to pay $129 (Rs 6,000 approximately) to avail this service.

With the tentative launch of the BlackBerry Playbook in India scheduled in the month of June sometime, it is highly expected that RIM will also extend the warranty plans for the Indian users as well.

TRAI Goofs; Puts up False Figures

The report that TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) revealed last week may have just gone out to show that the nation has truly, rapidly adapted to the mobile generation. 

However, just as the celebratory bells rung louder, the truth was revealed. A bad mix-up of numbers is what best defines the report, as per the reports that have been trickling in ever since. Apparently, the TRAI analysts ‘researched’ that as of 2011, India was home to whopping 812 million mobile subscribers, the image below depicts the TRAI’s version of the magic number.

It didn’t need some rocket science technique for Voice&Data, an online resource centre for the Indian Telecom, to dish out the real picture. The TRAI had very conveniently taken up the mobile numbers to be the number signifying individual names of subscribers, which may not be necessarily true. It isn’t novelty that you see a person owning more than SIM card. In such a scenario, although there are multiple SIM cards on a person, it doesn’t make up for multiple subscribers. It was a simple calculation that went horribly wrong for the TRAI officials.