Telco revenue is going OTT, but not in a good way
OTT is fast becoming a massive threat to telcos’ revenue management, the effect of which is clearly evidenced by double digit revenue loss for operators in 2014. What is the OTT threat? Over-the-top (OTT) applications – apps and services that offer a service over the Internet, bypassing traditional distribution – have struggled to monetise their […]
Paym – The mobile payment service set to rule the world
By Andy Gent 29th April saw the release of a new mobile payment system, Paym, which allows users to send and receive money using just a mobile phone number. There is no need to remember account details or card numbers and to receive a payment you don’t even need a smartphone. You do, however, need a […]
Banking on mobile banking
By Dilip Mistry Mobile banking is big business. Users are set to exceed 1 billion by 2017, up from 590 million last year, a 15% representation of global subscribers. The end of this month signalled the release of Paym (more on that later), the Banking and Finance industries’ simple transfer tool that removes the need for […]
Heartbleed hits home after bug sweep
by Dilip Mistry Finnish Company Codenomicon along with Google researcher Neel Mehta have recently discovered a flaw in OpenSSL, a form of the web-based encryption technology Secure-Socket-Layer (SSL) and Transport-Layer-Security (TLS). The technology is used widely all over the Internet to encrypt sensitive personal data with a high potential for fraudulent use, such as passwords […]
Roaming – the most costly type of fraud
by Dilip Mistry According to the Communications Fraud Control Association’s (CFCA) most recent fraud loss survey one of the most common types of fraud reported by operators, accounting for $6.11 Billion (USD) losses, is roaming fraud. Whether inbound, where calls are received on a different network than the home network, or outbound which is the […]
Who’s calling you?
by Andy Gent Cold calling is a nuisance, to the point that many people simply do not answer calls from numbers that they do not recognise or that do not display. With the growth in automated calls, this issue just gets more frustrating. But there is also a sinister element to some cold calls. Fraudsters […]
New banking trojan targets mobile phones
by Andy Gent The latest bank account-raiding Trojan, Hesperbot, includes element to persuade users to install a mobile malware component of the software onto Symbian, Blackberry and popular Android smartphones. The software, which has been reported infecting computers in the UK and throughout Europe is distributed through convincing package tracking documents from postal companies or […]
New use of mobile to create banking fraud
By Dilip Mistry Online and mobile banking has brought a new level of convenience to consumers world-wide and the growth of mobile payments, particularly in the developing world, has created new opportunities for commerce to be transacted. However, this also generates new opportunities for fraudsters. The Times of India reported this week on a new […]
Another week, another mobile phone scam
Our attention was drawn to an article published by Norfolk Police in the UK regarding another mobile phone fraud scam. An elderly man received three mobile phones in the post. He had the good sense to contact the network operator that had sent these and advise them that he had not ordered them. He also […]
How unique signal variations could help covertly track individual mobile handsets
According to recent research funded by the EU and the German government, and reported in The New Scientist, mobile phones give off a unique set of variations within their radio signal which has the potential to be employed by law enforcement to track any handset. Though the initial research carried out at the Technical University […]