It’s a quick read and has a lot of easy-to-digest information.  From an IT standpoint, location-based services are a gold mine.  Tracking user locations based on semantic topics would yield information invaluable to marketing departments.

Effort must be put into protecting location-based services focused on user privacy.  Access to sensitive GPS data is legally tricky.  There’s no precedent that states that GPS updates are private information and companies must take an active role in protecting their users.

Now you can configure your iPhone to enable tethering.  Use at your own risk, I am not liable for any breach in the TOS.

*Update – Tethering runs in the background so you can still play games on your phone while someone surfs out on your laptop or computer.  You can also make and receive cell phone calls without interrupting the data session.  Glad to know it works as one would hope.  Tethering works via USB or via Bluetooth.

First, the fact that these vulnerabilities were not fixed until a major update is unsatisfactory.  Many of these fixes that were rolled out in 3.0 patched holes that allowed “application termination or arbitrary code execution.”  If this was an issue with Microsoft software that community would be up-in-arms about it.  The iPhone is less of a phone and more of a medium to stay digitally-connected to the world, including social networks and banking applications.   The potential for someone to exploit an iPhone and steal data is very real and Apple needs to take this threat seriously.

Secondly, I am surprised that these weren’t discovered by any of the various groups “hacking” the iPhone.  The community needs to get better at identifying and disclosing these risks and holding Apple accountable.  How many months until the next major, or minor, update to the phone?  And in those months how many vulnerabilities will not be patched until the upgrade occurs?

If we as professionals, and users, are to hold Microsoft’s feet to the fire to fix their software should we not hold other vendors accountable as well?  Threats to our data are ever-increasing and ever-evolving and as the world shifts to true mobile computing the risks of private data disclosure are becoming more prevalent.  Let’s hope that the major software and mobile phone providers get on the train early to secure their devices.  Without their assistance and diligence we may as well publish our Social Security Numbers on our blogs.

http://balldroppings.com/js/

Twitter is a tool used to share information.  With this in mind, the risks of using Twitter are primarily focused on two things, the information displayed on Twitter and the software that is used to post on Twitter.

Information disclosure is the number one risk with Twitter.  Not all disclosure is purposeful, and at times different pieces of data can be puzzled together.  This sort of operational information can put your company at risk from its competitors.  Small pieces of information can be cobbled together for a competitor to gain insight into your operations or products.

Secondly, Twitter has a website to “tweet” from as well as a myriad of 3rd party applications.  These applications are coded in many different languages and frameworks.  Every piece of software installed adds to the attack surface of your desktop systems.  Care should be taken in who can install software.

Restrictions should be put in place on Twitter, just as restrictions should be in place for other “2.0″ sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Identi.ca, et al.  Only authorized users should have access to these sites and tools to limit exposure of your operations and reputation.

So consider this my new “professional” writing home.  I’ll continue to update Likertland.com regularly but this will be my home-away-from-home.  I look forward to it!

Please feel free to drop comments or contact me via the contact page.

Thanks!

Jason