The fact that smartphones and tablets don’t need antivirus software or regular software updates is a major reason for their popularity. That could soon change, however, as security companies report evidence that criminals are getting close to finding efficient and profitable ways to compromise many mobile devices at a time.

If that happens, many more people would be exposed to mobile malware, and Apple and Google could be forced to regularly push out security updates for their mobile operating systems just as Microsoft does for Windows.

Smartphones and tablets don’t support the kind of criminal ecosystem associated with desktop and laptop computers. With PCs, people make money by using malicious Web pages and weaknesses in browsers and other software to install malware that steals login details or sends spam.

Criminals haven’t yet figured out a reliable business model for mobile, says Chris Astacio, a researcher at security company Websense. So far, attacks on mobile devices have been limited by the need to distribute malicious apps through mobile app stores, where Apple and Google take measures to screen out malware and quickly remove anything that does slip through.

Astacio believes that attackers will soon deliver mobile malware through Web pages instead, essentially the same approach that drives most infections on conventional computers. In a presentation last week at the RSA security conference in San Francisco, he reported evidence that the software currently causing most infections on laptops and desktops—according to figures from both Websense and another security company, AVG—could soon target mobile devices, too.

That software is Blackhole, which Astacio is investigating. It’s an example of an exploit kit, a package used by criminals to install malware onto people’s computers when they visit a compromised Web page. Blackhole, found on some NBC websites last month, assesses a victim’s computer so as to covertly offer them malware they are vulnerable to. The kit is an efficient way to distribute moneymaking malware at large scale.

While reverse-engineering the latest version of Blackhole, Astacio noticed that the software now specifically looks out for iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. Astacio believes Blackhole’s developers are preparing to target mobile devices with malware that can take control of a phone or tablet through its mobile browser.

“This all comes down to efficient hacking for mobile attackers—you already have the infrastructure set up for exploit kits to profile and target mobile devices,” says Astacio. “Mass mobile compromises seem to be the natural progression.”

Jaime Blasco, who leads the malware research labs at security company AlienVault, agrees with Astacio’s gloomy prediction. “The bad guys haven’t found the right way to get money from the user,” he says, “but probably it will happen.”

Mobile operating systems, particularly Android, are not particularly difficult to make malware for, says Blasco, and there are signs that criminals are working to adapt methods used to target PCs. “We have found samples of Zeus and SpyEye on mobile,” he says. Those are two common malware packages that have infected millions of desktops and laptops and that steal banking credentials. Blasco says that he believes so-called “ransomeware,” software that locks up access to data and demands payment to release it, will appear on mobile devices, too. Personal data on smartphones such as contact books, text messages, and photos could be a lucrative target.

Some malware for mobile devices has already appeared that could have a significant impact if coupled with the large-scale distribution offered by Blackhole. An Android app found recently by security company TrustGo on 100,000 phones in China spends victims’ money by abusing an SMS-based payments system. It was distributed and infected 100,000 phones in China through an alternative to Google’s app store popular in the country. Last fall it was found that some Samsung Android phones could be taken over through their browser, and other researchers have demonstrated similar attacks (see “How a Web Link Can Take Over Your Phone”).

Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer and cofounder of mobile security companyLookout, believes that new, profitable malware will eventually force Apple and Google into copying Microsoft’s approach to protecting its Windows operating system. In 2005, the company released a reinvented update tool for its operating system, which at the time was troubled by frequent new security problems. “Microsoft stopped everything to build Microsoft Update,” now a core part of Windows, says Mahaffey, and created a sophisticated workflow able to act quickly to patch new problems.

Apple and Google currently issue patches for their mobile operating systems only a handful of times each year, so many people can remain exposed to a vulnerability even long after a fix has been developed. Updates to Android devices are particularly rare because mobile carriers choose when to pass along Google’s latest upgrades to their users and many often choose not to.

“To constantly have to update those devices is a business decision they don’t want to have to make,” says Astacio.

(link) March 4, 2013 (http://www.technologyreview.com/news/512021/clues-suggest-malware-is-moving-from-pcs-to-mobile-devices/)

CUPP will be demoenstrating GateKeeper running on Windows 8.  Drop by our booth for a preview of the future of hardware based end point security.

GateKeeper allows physical separation from the network for endpoint devices.  Based on Yoggie Security Systems Award Winning product CUPP computer brings GateKeeper back to the market. Based on a core set of 12 applications Gatekeeper, blocks threats before they reach your device, hides your devies from prying eyes and boosts device performance.

•  Anti-Virus
•  Anti-Spam
•  Anti-Phishing
•  Anti-Spyware
•  Intrusion Detection System
•  Intrusion Prevention System
•  Firewall (Stateful Inspection)
•  Parental Control
•  Transparent Email and Web Proxies
•  Adaptive Security Policy™
•  Multi-Layer Security Agent™
•  Layer-8 Security Engine™

Think of it as a an micro server that keeps your device Safe for the outside world.

CUPP Computing is a leader in Hybrid Processing and Security Technology for PC and mobile applications. The company has developed and patented a unique technology which seamlessly integrates of both PC and low power architectures (ARM, MIPS, etc.) into a single system. This allows scalable computing to be offered as well as the practical manufacture of a new class of devices that will deliver a complete spectrum of functionality to users. The technology also enables an environment which provides an uncompromised level data security as well as encryption and transaction services. Founded in 2005, CUPP is headquartered in Bergen, Norway, and has offices and affiliates in the United States, Israel, France and the Czech Republic. For more information, contact info@cuppcomputing.com

All successful operating systems have been easy to develop for and to use. This “ease” can mean different things to different parties. However, it almost always comes hand in hand with security deficiencies. This holds true for your PC and for your Phone.

Lack of security was not necessarily a problem when Users (you and me) only had only a few crash-prone Word docs on our devices. Now that we Users store banking information, credit card details and all sorts of other personal information on our computers, an entire industry has developed around obtaining this information from users. How big the industry has become is difficult to say, since people and corporations don’t like to admit when they have lost money.

Last year, a discussion went back and forth in the computing community about how big this new industry has become. The Register claimed that the new industry of cybercrime is bigger than the worldwide illegal drug trade. In Sight Crime countered that the cybercrime industry last year seems to have been slightly smaller than the global drug trade.

Regardless of what the Biggest Criminal Industry currently is (or what it was last year), we do know that malware and cybercrime are growing. State actors are deploying exploits such as Stuxnet and Flame as well as orchestrated, long term, startlingly effective data-siphoning attacks against almost any organization that possesses valuable Intellectual Property. Organized criminals and teenagers the world over are making fortunes from small scale and industrial-scale cybercrime operations.

British MI5 chief Jonathan Evans says the intelligence agency is working against “astonishing” levels of cyber-attacks on UK industry. The security chief also stated that an unnamed London based firm has lost over £800m ($1.2 USD Billion) in direct and indirect losses (The Economist).  Gen. Keith Alexander, the chief of the United States Cyber Command and the director of the National Security Agency, said  intrusions against computers that run essential infrastructure increased 17-fold from 2009-11 and that it’s only a matter of time before an attack causes physical damage. He has also called the loss of industrial information and intellectual property through cyberespionage “the greatest transfer of wealth in history.” (NYT)

CUPP GateKeeper

Single-point defenses to cybercrime, such as anti-virus software deployments, are limited in efficacy. Effectively preventing cybercrime against personal or organizational assets requires the protection of data at every stage, including points of data entry, transmission, access, storage, and disposal.

Why aren’t people and organizations successfully protecting data in all five stages? Because it’s hard.

Adding protections at five stages of data could potentially greatly reduce productivity. Typically, protecting data takes time and expertise. Even if they have the knowledge to successfully protect their data, many Users will avoid spending time to protect data against “dogs that don’t bark” — invisible cybercriminal adversaries. This creates widespread personal and organizational exploit vulnerabilities.

CUPP’s GateKeeper hardware security solutions can be an important resource in protecting sensitive data and IP. GateKeeper is “plug-and-play” security that works without requiring time or effort from Users. GateKeeper is Defense in Depth that works on the hardware and software levels to protect data on a device during data production, transmission, access, and storage.

With GateKeeper and other CUPP security solutions, CUPP is working to make security easy, with secure computing solutions that defend on many levels without requiring Users to think about it.

Sources:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-26/china-hackers-hit-eu-point-man-and-d-c-with-byzantine-candor.html

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/from-black-hat-hackers-demonstrate-nfc-dangers/

https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/the-olympics-and-beyond.html

Bergen, Norway. – August 13, 2012 – CUPP Computing AS (CUPP), a leader in dual mode processing and security technology for PC and mobile applications, announced today that the CUPP Board of Directors has appointed Art Swift as Chief Executive Officer. Swift succeeds co-founder Kevin McDonnell, who will continue to serve as General Manager and Chief Marketing Officer.

Mr. Swift brings to CUPP more than twenty years of executive-level experience with some of the world’s leading semiconductor, nanotech, and processor IP companies. He has held a range of general management and senior marketing leadership roles including CEO at low power chip-maker Transmeta (Nasdaq: TMTA), CEO of nanotech innovator Unidym, and Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MIPS), a leading provider of microprocessor IP.  Earlier in his career Swift was Chief Operating Officer at embedded software provider Lynuxworks and Vice President and General Manager of several divisions of chipmaker Cirrus Logic.

According to Carl-Fredrik Joys, Chairman of the Board of CUPP, “We are delighted that Art Swift has joined the team at CUPP Computing.  We expect that his broad experience in semiconductors and IP, as well as his leadership talents, will contribute strongly to the future success of CUPP.  We’d also like to thank CUPP co-founder Kevin McDonnell for all his diligent efforts on the part of the company and look forward to his continued contributions.”

“Having spent most of the last decade building innovative chips and IP for the mobile PC, tablet and smartphone industries, I can attest that the patented low power and security technologies that CUPP has developed could prove incredibly valuable to all of these markets. I am excited to have the opportunity to help CUPP achieve the next level of success,” said Mr. Swift.

In his recent role at MIPS prior to joining CUPP, Mr. Swift was a driving force behind the processor IP supplier’s successful moves into the Android^tm and mobile markets. In just two short years since MIPS announced its entrance into the mobile processor space, the company has made significant inroads with numerous MIPS-Based™ tablets and smartphones shipping and a growing mobile ecosystem around the MIPS® architecture.

At Transmeta, as CEO, Mr. Swift helped spearhead the transformation of the company into a supplier of low power processor intellectual property (IP) which resulted in successful IP licenses or major business relationships with some of the top technology companies in the world, including Sony, Microsoft, Toshiba, Fujitsu and NEC.  Swift’s leadership also helped the company swing to operating profits for the first time in its corporate history.

Mr. Swift is a graduate of UCLA’s Director Certification program at the Anderson School of Business, which provides a strong grounding in corporate governance. He has held board seats at Transmeta and Unidym, and is currently on the Finance Committee of the Board of Directors of the Foothill DeAnza Foundation, a non-profit organization which raises and manages the endowment funds for one of the leading community college systems in California.  Mr. Swift holds a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University.

About CUPP Computing AS.

CUPP Computing is a leader in dual mode processing and security technology for PC and mobile applications.  The company has developed and patented a unique technology which enables the seamless integration of both x86 and low power architectures (ARM, MIPS, etc.) into a single system.  This allows truly scalable computing to be offered, as well as the practical manufacture of a new class of devices that will deliver a complete spectrum of functionality to users.  The technology also enables an environment which provides unprecedented levels of user and data security as well as encryption and transaction services. Founded in 2005, CUPP is headquartered in Bergen, Norway, and has offices and affiliates in the United States, Israel, France and the Czech Republic. For more information, contact info@cuppcomputing.com

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 Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Use of this trademark is subject to Google Permissions. All other trademarks referred to herein are the property of their respective owners. 

A couple of weeks ago Dropbox hired some “outside experts” to investigate why a bunch of users were getting spam at e-mail addresses used only for Dropbox storage accounts. The results of the investigation are in, and it turns out a Dropbox employee’s account was hacked, allowing access to user e-mail addresses. In an explanatory blog post, Dropbox today said a stolen password was “used to access an employee Dropbox account containing a project document with user email addresses.”

Dropbox noted that users should set up different passwords for different sites. The site is also increasing its own security measures. In a few weeks, Dropbox said it will start offering an optional two-factor authentication service. This could involve users logging in with a password as well as a temporary code sent to their phones.  ArsTechnica

South Korea’s KT Telecom said that 8.7 million of it 16 million user were hacked over the last year.

The data having been sold to Telemarketers.  South Korea has one of the highest rates of Mobile phone with Smart phone penitration at over 50% of the market.

Some hints as to the nature of Mobile hacking can be seen via Collin Mulliner’s Paper at Black Hat this year “Probing Mobile Networks“.

Via: The NextWeb / PC Mag

This acquisition reflects two priorities: First, the importance CUPP places on computer security and its seriousness to deliver to the market the full scope of benefits that are made possible by its core technology. The opportunity to provide unprecedented levels of PC security is innate to CUPP’s patented technology. This acquisition enables the company to bring this advantage into the PC user space. It will allow CUPP to deliver a powerful solution for two of the most important challenges in PC industry – computer security and power savings.

YOGGIE’s IP will be incorporated into CUPP Computing’s software portfolio, which CUPP will continue to develop. This will enable the company to pursue a comprehensive package in bringing next generation of computer solutions to market.

“YOGGIE’s innovative security technology provides the perfect platform to expand the footprint for the Multi-Mode System, and creates a unique and powerful value proposition for CUPP’s key offerings in the ever changing computer hardware market” – Omar Nathaniel Ely, CTO of CUPP Computing.

CUPP Computing plans to re-launch the YOGGIE development center and expand its technical scope. The founder of YOGGIE security systems Shlomo Touboul is expected to remain with the CUPP Development Center for the startup period and hopefully well beyond.

Yoggie Pico

The Yoggie Pico is a ARM-based computer with its processor, memory and hardened operating system dedicated for Computer Security, all in the form factor of a memory stick.

“We like the Pico enough that after we surrender the Pico to the Tom’s Guide central office for further testing, that we plan to purchase one for each of our own notebook PCs. “ – Tom’s Guide

Yoggie Pico is the winner of CES Best Innovation of 2008, Computers Accessories Award, CES Honoree of Innovations 2009 Computers Peripherals.

Software Package

Yoggie security suite:

• 14 different security applications
• Enterprise Level Security (Anti-Virus, Firewall, IDS/IPS, Anti-Spam, Web filtering..)
• Complete isolation of PC from the wireless network (pass-through), but supports all network connections (redirect)
• WLAN Ethernet
• Security updates download even when laptop is shutdown
• Computer scan even when laptop is shutdown
• Support mass storage device
• AV scan on-demand (Data Keeper technology)

You can find out more about the announcement in our press release:

• English
• Norwegian
• Spanish

CUPP Computing has developed a 2.5” module for x-86 PCs.  Codenamed “PunkThis” for PC, it is based on CUPP’s patented technology and “Multi-mode computing” vision.  The device enables a user to combine a high performance PC processor (x86/IA) and a low power processor (RISC/ARM) into a single platform.  This allows the user to choose between low power/extended battery life and high performance/ normal battery life, enhancing their PCs functionality.

The PunkThis was conceived as a spin-off from CUPP’s internal development platform to a product for tech savvy users. The PunkThis module is designed to engage people and make them understand CUPP’s technology, but at the same time we aim to make the PunkThis module as consumer friendly as we can. This we have done by developing solder-less kits for Specific Notebooks. (Presently we are targeting the Asus 1015pn with a 12” – 13” notebook to follow.)

The PunkThis module contains both and Mini PCIe SSD HD and an ARM processor.  The ARM Processor is a TI OMAP DM3730 at 1GHz with 512MB of RAM.  Two USB connections (Host & USB OTG) allow uses flexibility to access and share data.

Along with the PunkThis module CUPP will also release a desktop enclosure.   This provides users and developers a compact desktop Computer that can be used in a number of roles.  As a stand-alone computer it can be used as media center, terminal, or connected device.  When used in conjunction with a desktop PunkThis provides an ideal instant on, low power system to check mail and surf the web.  Developers gain the ability to target the ARM v7 code base on physical hardware while retaining the functionality of a desktop environment.  PunkThis enables more practical computing with greater battery life and a more versatile set of use cases.  It allows low power applications and flexibility, with seamless access to PC processing power as needed.  This module will provide over 20 hour computing in a standard netbook or 40 hours with a low power screen. (PixelQi)

PunkThis is an open unlocked device allowing users and developers to use their imagination to find new use cases and functions for this board.   This gives manufacturers and consumers the ability to easily adapt existing PC’s for greater power efficiency and flexibility.  Delivering functionality previously impossible in a Personal Computer.

CUPP PunkThis Techinical Specifications:

• TI DM3730 1.0Ghz A8 processor
• 512 MB RAM
• Micro SD System Memory
• Mini PCIe SSD for PC C: Drive
• Micro SD for Shared Drive
• Wifi
• USB ToGo
• USB Host
• Keyboard Controller (User Reprogrammable Keyboard Controller)
• Audio I/O

OS Development

• Ubuntu
• Android 2.3 (to be updated as new releases become available)
• Open Platform

Other:

• 20 hour battery life in 10” Netbook
• 40 hour battery life with low power screen (PixelQi)
• Sub $200 USD Price

PunkThis Enclosure: (Price undetermined)

• 5 USB Ports
• Audio I/O
• DVI I/O
• Power
• SD Card
• Head Phone Jack

Please visit us at Hall Nangang 4F – Overseas Exhibitors Area – Booth N1230

Nangang 4F - Overseas Exhibitors Area - Booth N1230

Come visit our booth in Taipei we will be releasing our first product PunkThis.  CUPP Computing will be at Computex Taipei, May 31st to June 4th.

Hall Nangang 4F – Overseas Exhibitors Area – Booth N1230: Map (link)

This was covered by JKKMobile, Engadget, Netbooknews, SemiAccurate and Golem.de

Macbook Pro - OMAP 3530 - Android booting

Macbook Pro - OMAP 3530 - Android Home Screen

Macbook Pro - Omap 3530 - Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook

Video Clips Below:

JKKMobile

netbooknews

Golem.de