Qadit's SecureITy ZoneInformation is power. Secure IT.
Concept of thin-client, which has been around for a decade and half, is back in the limelight with cloud computing gaining considerable popularity and acceptance. It is, therefore, relevant to know how thin-clients aid information security. Read more »
Recent Phishing Scams
Over the last few months, financial institutions have seen a varying profile of phishing attacks. Two interesting instances are reproduced below Read more »
If you have used a webmail service like Gmail/ Yahoo/ Hotmail, then you have used a form of cloud computing.
In the old days of mobile internet, manufacturers and designers had a hard time providing internet access that is similar to computers can achieve with modems and an HTML browser. GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) was the first technology that was successfully implemented into the 2G mobile phone systems to send and receive data between mobile phones and transmission towers. But by itself, GPRS does not provide the mechanisms for user to browse the internet. For that, WAP or the Wireless Application Protocol, was developed. You can think of WAP as a toned down version of HTML while GPRS is a toned down version of dial-up. To use another analogy, GPRS is the highway and WAP is the vehicle that uses the highway.
GPRS allowed the mobile phone companies to create a digital link where data can be effectively transmitted. But GPRS is not a technology that is exclusively used by WAP alone, other services also use GPRS to transmit data due to several advantages that it offers. One of these is SMS or commonly known as text messages, since using a GPRS connection for SMS results in a greater number of messages that can be sent within a given timeframe.
Theoretically, it is possible to use HTML browsers with mobile phones. But with the very slow GPRS and very weak processing capabilities of mobile phones at that time, HTML browsers are simply not practical. WAP browsers create a smaller and and leaner version of the internet to circumvent the small screens and weak processors of older phones. WML or the Wireless Markup Language was also created to create a separate and smaller set of keywords for use in WAP browsers.
Although these two were a good match before, the advancement of technologies have given better options. EDGE, which is an improvement over GPRS, allowed consumers to use WAP at higher speeds which gave a better internet experience. And the more recent 3G technologies means that there is very little need to stick to WML. Most of the more recent mobile phones can now support full HTML browsing, this gives an indication that WAP would soon be obsolete. Although GPRS is still very common today, it is only a matter of time before the 3G networks take over the areas that are only covered by GPRS as of today. By the time, GPRS would also be obsolete.
Summary:
1. GPRS is a method of connecting to your provider while WAP is the protocol that runs on top of GPRS
2. WAP is suited for GPRS only connections
3. There are also other services that use GPRS aside from WAP
4. WAP can also be used on EDGE and even on 3G connections
Javelin’s 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report: Consumer Version provides tips and recommendations for consumers to help prevent, detect and resolve identity fraud. This study is designed to help consumers lower their risk of identity fraud by equipping them with the tools and resources necessary to detect and resolve this crime.
The Information Technology Act gives legal validity to internet based communications / transactions like email and EDI etc, i.e. e-commerce in short.In these internet based transactions, a digital signature serves the purpose of identifying the originator of the transaction and ensuring that the communication has happened without any intermediary disturbance like data tampering or modification. Read more »
We are always under the impression that formatting of a HDD or USB removes the data permanently. But this is not the truth. Data on these media can be retrieved by special disk / file recovery utilities and laboratory attacks even after formatting. Let us see what the best method of sanitizing data is. Read more »
The first International Risk Management Standard ISO 31000:2009, together with ISO Guide 73:2009, was released by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) on 15 November 2009.
And since IT Security is an integral part of Risk Management, it is useful for anybody interested in IT Security to know the basics of this new Risk Management ISO Standard.
The use of smart phones to access sensitive corporate information away from the office is creating huge security gaps for enterprises. Smart phones are being used to access company mails and applications. Atleast one major breach involving theft of application code has been attributed to malware from smart phones. So how do we benefit from the technology while addressing the risks Read more »