Black Hatters Reveil SMS Security Concern

Speaking to the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner told the audience that smartphones operating Apple's, Microsoft's, or Google's operating systems were vulnerable to an SMS based attack that would be executed by code arriving in a text message. The malicious code could knock a phone off of a network, access data on the phone, or access the programs installed on the phone. The pair have published their findings to encourage the OS makers to fix the holes and have said the they contacted Apple, Microsoft, and Google directly but Google is the only one who has addressed the issue todate.

BBC story.

Canadians Can Twitter Via Cell Phone... For A Price

Since November Canadians have not been able to receive tweets from Twitter on their cell phones via SMS as Twitter cut the service citing prohibitive costs. Yesterday however Bell announced that it would now allow the SMS tweets but there is a cost. "Because Twitter is a third party service, the messages are considered premium and not covered by our plans. This aligns with industry standards regarding third party premium messaging," said Bell spokeswoman Julie Smithers. Bell will charge users of the service 15 cents for each incoming or outgoing tweet, even if the user has an unlimited texting plan.

Source: CBC

Doctor Uses Text Messages To Instruct Colleague On Tricky Surgery

David Nott, a vascular surgeon from London, was coached by Professor Meirion Thomas via text messages on how to preform a difficult forequarter amputation. Nott, who was attending to a teenager in Congo Africa while volunteering with Doctors Without Borders knew that the teens only chance was to have the operation which he had never attempted. A call to Thomas was responded to within 10 minutes. Thomas provided Nott with the 10 steps to the amputation then reportedly signed off with "Easy! Good luck." Nott says "I felt I had like my guardian angel on my left shoulder showing me what to do. I just got on with it, and everything he told me, I just did".

What a great story!

CNN story.

Text Messages From Dumbo

Game wardens and farmers in Kenya have been at odds over elephants that have been raiding villagers' crops, sometimes wiping out a half years worth of income at a time. Villagers used to beat pots and pans and light fires to ward off the massive animals and wardens where at times forced to put the animals down to save the lively hood of the farmers. A new project has collars with embedded cellphone SIM cards being placed on the perpetrators and virtual "geofences" created using a global positioning system. When an animal gets too close to the villages a text message is sent from the collar to the wardens who dispatch a team to divert the animals back to the conservancy. Though costly, the plan has worked and is changing the habits of the pachyderms. The technique is being employed in two Kenyan national conservancies. Besides stopping the raiding of crops the system also helps to track and understand the movement of the beasts and aids in the fight against poaching.

"Elephants are ranked as "near threatened" in the Red List, an index of vulnerable species published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature." CNN/AP story here.

Text Messages Being Sought By Train Wreck Investigators

Federal investigators say they are seeking the cell phone records of two teenagers and the deceased engineer of a commuter train involved in a collision with a freight train on Friday. The accident has left 25 dead and more than 130 passengers injured. The teens, who are train enthusiasts, came forward to say that they had been texting the engineer prior to the collision. "We have been in contact with them and their families. They have been fully cooperative," Kitty Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board told reporters. "We are going to be obtaining records from their cell phones and of the deceased ... to begin to determine what might have happened and what if any role [cell phones] might have played in this accident." No cell phone was found on or near the dead engineer. CNN Story here.

Air Traffic Controller Uses SMS To Guide Crippled Plane's Pilot

A quick-thinking air traffic controller from Cork, Ireland guided the pilot of a twin-engined Piper that had lost all onboard electrical power, communications and weather radar to a safe landing using only text messages. The pilot of the troubled craft attempted to use his cellphone repeatedly to raise contact with Kerry airport, where he had left, and when unsuccessful he made brief voice contact with air traffic control at Cork. When voice contact was lost the air traffic controller sent text messages to the pilot informing him that he had a radar signal on the aircraft and that Cork would allow them to land. "In this incident the positive and proactive initiative of the ATC controller, who, on realising that mobile audio communication from the pilot was intermittent, quickly switched to texting his instructions instead," said air accident investigator John Hughes. I hope this guy gets a raise! Well done...

Irishtimes.com

Amazon Launches TextBuyIt - Text To Purchase Service

Amazon has just launched a new service that allows you to text in a product name, UPC code, or ISBN and get a response with whether or not the item is stocked. The query will return two matches at a time and prompt you for the sale. If you decide to make the purchase you will be prompted for confirmation by identifying the e-mail address associated with your amazon account and then phoned to complete the checkout details. As Wired eludes, this brings a whole new tool into the game of comparison shopping... I suppose that is why they support UPC and ISBN codes. Text to 262966 ("Amazon" on the keypad) and give it a try!

College Coaches to Vote on Texting as a Recruiting Tool

College basketball is competitive on many levels, least of which is the recruitment of top ranked high school players. For many coaches trying to recruit, text messaging or texting has become a valuable tool which reaches the young stars in a manner that they are familiar and comfortable with. There is a fine line however and some students have begun to complain that all of the messages are costing them time and money leading the N.C.A.A. to put a ban on the practice for Division I colleges last August. Today during their annual convention, representatives from the N.C.A.A.’s Division I members are expected to revisit the issue after 34 of the 329 colleges asked for an override vote. Some are suggesting that governing body reinstate the practice but put restrictions on the use of texting similar to those imposed on placing phone calls to the recruits. What an interesting dilemma! Sort of like that which we all face when we get those annoying telemarketing calls, only for these kids there are real benefits to staying in touch with certain coaches while others with whom they have no interest still want to be heard. The New York Times has the story here.

A Billion text messages a week in Briton!

According to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA) Britons are now sending more than 1 Billion text messages a week, up 25% in the last year! "It's convenient, comprehensive, it's on every handset and network and it is cost effective," said Mike Short, head of the MDA. The upward trend seems to be driven by business's adoption of the technology, "It's a lot more convenient for a business now to notify lots of their employees about an urgent message using a text message," what ever the reason that's a lot of keys being pressed on tiny key pads! I am seeing an increase in texting here in North America as well but I'd venture to guess that it's adoption rate is far below that of Europe and Asia. The BBC has more here.