Category Archives: Bluetooth

How To Avoid People With Bluetooth

Further to some postings a few weeks back about bluetooth dating (here and here), seems we defined the field too narrowly. We should have been talking about ‘personal smart presence devices’ and perhaps we’re not seeing a fad here, but a different way of regarding social interaction. (All these services reside on Bluetooth devices —… Read More »

WAPjacking And The End Of Innocence

Here’s a new kind of cellphone scam (via Mike Masnick of Techdirt, writing in TheFeature): WAPjacking (well that’s what he calls it, and I like it): Taking a page from the still popular redialer scam on PCs – where a secretive trojan tries to disconnect your modem (assuming you’re using dialup) and reconnect you secretly… Read More »

The Bluesnarfing Skeptics

Is Bluesnarfing the big problem it’s made out to be? “Traditionally,” wrote Guy Kewney of eWeek earlier this month, “security consultants have made a passable living by frightening ignorant managers with security holes. Then they charge money to fix them.” He then takes a look at bluesnarfing, which regular readers of this blog and the… Read More »

Bluetooth Security – The World Wakes Up?

The corporate world, it seems, is waking up to Bluetooth security issues. At the same time there is a growing slew of products to make them sleep safer. InfoSync World writes of new security software from Bluefire Security which “disables Bluetooth and Infrared communication to minimize the risk of information theft.” Bluefire Mobile Firewall Plus… Read More »

This week’s column – Mailbag

This week’s Loose Wire column answers readers’ questions on Bluesnarfing, the unpleasant term for the unpleasant process of remotely stealing the data from a Bluetooth-equipped cellphones, the wonders of PowerDesk and ExplorerPlus, and browser wars. Full text at the Far Eastern Economic Review (subscription required, trial available) or at WSJ.com (subscription required). Old columns at feer.com… Read More »