Tag Archive for: Phone

How to Put Your Driver’s License on Your Phone

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How nice would it be to never again realize that you forgot your driver’s license in your other pants? Well, if you have a smartphone—and if you live in one of the US states that supports it—you can start carrying a digital version of your ID with you everywhere.

A recent Android update expands Google’s digital ID program that lets users store their personal IDs in digital form within Google Wallet. This includes driver’s licenses and other official state IDs. Apple launched a similar feature in Apple Wallet in 2021. Digital identification cards (for both platforms) are available in just a handful of US states right now: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, and Maryland. Both Apple and Google say residents of more states will be able to load their driver’s licenses onto their phones eventually, but that depends on local governments making the necessary policy and digital infrastructure changes.

Some other states are content to maintain their own services for displaying your digital ID. California has its own mobile driver’s license app, as does Utah. Both Google and Apple hope to build out their ID storage capabilities, but with so many government agencies involved, the process is slow going. Meanwhile, the US Transportation Security Administration accepts digital drivers licenses at just over two dozen airports across the US; you can find a map of those airports on the TSA website.

Digital IDs in both Apple and Google Wallets work in tandem with your phone’s bio-authentication features to verify that the person holding the phone is the person whose ID is on there. When you are asked to show your ID, you’ll be prompted to unlock the feature by scanning your face with Face ID or using your fingerprint scanner, just like you would with a contactless payment.

If you live in a state that supports digital ID management, here’s what to know about storing your government-issued ID card on your phone.

How to Add Your ID to Google Wallet

Google Wallet should be preinstalled on your Android device, but if not, then redownload the app. You’ll need to have a screen lock enabled, which Google requires so that nobody other than you is able to use your ID or your payment cards.

Go into the…

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MGM cyber attack: How a phone call may have led to the ongoing hack

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Did prominent casino chain MGM Resorts gamble with its customers’ data? That’s a question a lot of those customers are probably asking themselves after a cyberattack took down many of MGM’s systems for several days. And it may have all started with a phone call, if reports citing the hackers themselves are to be believed.

MGM, which owns more than two dozen hotel and casino locations around the world as well as an online sports betting arm, reported on September 11 that a “cybersecurity issue” was affecting some of its systems, which it shut down to “protect our systems and data.” For the next several days, reports said everything from hotel room digital keys to slot machines weren’t working. Even websites for its many properties went offline for a while. Guests found themselves waiting in hours-long lines to check in and get physical room keys or getting handwritten receipts for casino winnings as the company went into manual mode to stay as operational as possible. MGM Resorts didn’t respond to a request for comment, and has only posted vague references to a “cybersecurity issue” on Twitter/X, reassuring guests it was working to resolve the issue and that its resorts were staying open.

It took about 10 days, but MGM announced on September 20 that its hotels and casinos were “operating normally” again, although there may be some “intermittent issues” and MGM Rewards may not be available.

“We thank you for your patience,” the company said in its statement. It did not provide any additional information on the reason why its systems went down in the first place.

The attacks show how even organizations that you might expect to be especially locked down and protected from cybersecurity attacks — say, massive casino chains that pull in tens of millions of dollars every day — are still vulnerable if the hacker uses the right attack vector. And that’s almost always a human being and human nature. In this case, it appears that publicly available information and a persuasive phone manner were enough to give the hackers all they needed to get into MGM’s systems and create what is likely to be some very expensive havoc that will hurt both the…

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Spyware can infect your phone or computer via the ads you see online – report

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(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

(THE CONVERSATION) Each day, you leave digital traces of what you did, where you went, who you communicated with, what you bought, what you’re thinking of buying, and much more. This mass of data serves as a library of clues for personalized ads, which are sent to you by a sophisticated network – an automated marketplace of advertisers, publishers and ad brokers that operates at lightning speed.

The ad networks are designed to shield your identity, but companies and governments are able to combine that information with other data, particularly phone location, to identify you and track your movements and online activity. More invasive yet is spyware – malicious software that a government agent, private investigator or criminal installs on someone’s phone or computer without their knowledge or consent. Spyware lets the user see the contents of the target’s device, including calls, texts, email and voicemail. Some forms of spyware can take control of a phone, including turning on its microphone and camera.

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Now, according to an investigative report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, an Israeli technology company called Insanet has developed the means of delivering spyware via online ad networks, turning some targeted ads into Trojan horses. According to the report, there’s no defense against the spyware, and the Israeli government has given Insanet approval to sell the technology.

Insanet’s spyware, Sherlock, is not the first spyware that can be installed on a phone without the need to trick the phone’s owner into clicking on a malicious link or downloading a malicious file. NSO’s iPhone-hacking Pegasus, for instance, is one of the most controversial spyware tools to emerge in the past five years.

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What sets Insanet’s Sherlock apart from Pegasus is its exploitation of ad networks rather than vulnerabilities in phones. A Sherlock user creates an ad campaign that narrowly focuses on the target’s demographic and location, and places a spyware-laden ad with an ad exchange….

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Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 4G becomes the first phone to get August 2023 security update

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Samsung has released the August 2023 Android security update for the Galaxy S20 FE’s 4G variant (SM-G780G), making it the first Android device to get the August 2023 security patch.

The update comes with firmware version G780GXXS6EWG9 and is rolling in Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G

If you live in any of these regions and are yet to receive the update on your Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 4G, you can check for it manually by heading to your phone’s Settings > Software update menu.

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