A bit concerned about security - latest from McAfee.

[Serpentine]

Guys:

As with many of us, the nature of my business requires ultra security. I must do everything possible to not let the bad guys know where I am at.

I read this article last week from McAfee Labs:
McAfee Labs Predicts Geolocation, Mobile Devices and Apple Will Top the List of Targets for Emerging Threats in 2011 | Business Wire

Then I see this caller ID app that exposes Full name, street address, city, and state. Worse, it lets people know your exact location on the map! Super Caller Id - Android

Now I turn off wi-fi and GPS when I leave the house, however, speaking with an Apple IPhone Network engineer yesterday, I was told that the latest IPhones and many Android based phones have some sort of bubble location notifiers that don't use wi-fi or GPS. The idea is for them to know your shopping habits and sell this information to online retailers like Amazon.com.

Basically, I was told that if a hackster using this same technology knows your cell phone number, you can be located by exact map location. Not good!

Short of turning my phone off completely and going back to hard wire phones, is there anything I can do to protect against black hatted bad guys?


.

 

[Deleted User]

Uh, the "Super Caller ID" only works on registered numbers that can be looked up (i.e. not cell phones), and it only shows public information that could be obtained from the white pages. It's not anything secret or weird or unsafe. All of the information it is obtaining is public information.

In your phone, there is rough location based on cell towers in the phones but there would have to be some kind of malware installed on your phone to take advantage of it - it's not like someone can just remotely identify who you are and where you are. And it's not that precise - it depends on your proximity to towers.

This is paranoia at its finest... Relax. The bad guys aren't going to remotely log into your phone and track you down. There are equal paranoid concerns about computers - if malware got into your computer, the right type of software could track your bank account information, figure out where you lived, any of a number of things.


edit: I think what the iPhone engineer is talking about is general geotargeting of ads. This is not based on your cell phone location, it's based on the IP you get from the phone network that is issued regionally and is used to serve geotargeted advertisements to you. It's incredibly rough and often is not even accurate down to your city.

 

[alostpacket]

I always find it funny when McAfee warns of threats to computers nowadays when they themselves caused one of the biggest global PC crashes last april

McAfee Probing Bungle That Sparked Global PC Crash | Threat Level | Wired.com

 

[mlclm]

I mean this in the best possible way, but no one wants kidnap you.

 

[Martimus]

Also the information referenced on your shopping habits is not all that different from the types of data gathered from "cookies" on a PC.

 

[Trooper]

Speaking of security (or in this case annoyances) is there a good app on the market to block certain numbers from ringing your phone? Specifcally Id like it to just hang up on whomever is calling me that I dont want to call. Im on the do not call list and still get spammed.

If anyone feels Im hijacking this thread, shoot me a PM please. Thank you.

 

[Manxminx]

Try something like Call Control - Android app on AppBrain or

BlackList - Android app on AppBrain

Kris.

 

[Sulfur]

I mean this in the best possible way, but no one wants kidnap you.

That might be a little presumptuous, not knowing anything about him or specifics of his work.

 

[Serpentine]

That might be a little presumptuous, not knowing anything about him or specifics of his work.

Correct. All I can tell you is that my neighbors and customers are CEO's, CFO's, Presidents of companies like Ebay (Meg Whitman lived two blocks away when she started up), Oracle, Sun Micro systems, Amazon, Adobe, Federal, State, and local law Enforcement Officials.

Enemies are illegal drug cartels and client cyber-guard protection piracy.

.

 

[Serpentine]

Unless someone has a better solution, I'm thinking of transitioning my business cards and Internet contact number to my land line phone number, then call-forward that to my cell phone, then grab an app that "fakes" my caller ID on my cell phone to show my land line number (for callbacks).

 

[Deleted User]

Just pick up a Google Voice number.

It's free, you can set your phone to use GV for all of your outgoing calls, there's literally no traceability back to your person (that is, Google doesn't require a home address or anything), and you get the phone number of your choice.

Also, you don't have to install some flaky app that fakes your caller ID. The caller ID really does come from your GV number.

http://www.google.com/voice/

That makes changing cell phones as easy as swapping in a new number to your Google Voice account. Or you could transition to a land line the same way.

 

[bigbadwulff]

I mean this in the best possible way, but no one wants kidnap you.

"They" are after me. I know they are.

 

[Serpentine]

Not paranoid, just have good reasons not to have a sheep mindset.

 

[Bankswood]

Speaking of security (or in this case annoyances) is there a good app on the market to block certain numbers from ringing your phone? Specifcally Id like it to just hang up on whomever is calling me that I dont want to call. Im on the do not call list and still get spammed.

If anyone feels Im hijacking this thread, shoot me a PM please. Thank you.

I use call filter. Blocked all my credit cards. HaHa!