Why won't Apple let us secure our VPNs?

I love my iOS devices.  THey just work.  I know that "work" means a subset of what's possible, as defined by Apple, but I'm over that.  (And I have other devices to let me do wireless scanning, change my kernels, etc.)

A pet peeve of mine is how I can't change the default ports in the PPTP VPN client settings.  Let me tell you a story.

Up until a couple of years ago I ran an SSH service on port 22, the default.  Because I saw a lot of failed attempts at logging in my attackers, I ran an automatic blacklisting tool.  If five failed attempts com in from the same IP in five minutes, the IP is added to a blacklist (hosts.deny).  It's also shared with other users of the script.  Not two hours would go by, 24/7 where some IP didn't get added to the list.

Then I decided to move SSH to a non-standard high port.  Over the next two years I watched it closely, to determine the impact of changing from the default.  Guess how many failed attempts I saw on the high port?

None.  Not one.  In two years.

It seems attackers aren't bothering with actual port scanning, at least on wholesale ISP connections.

Which brings me back to iOS.  I'm running PPTP services on a standard port.  (Yes, I know it's been broken, but it also turns out there's no built-on iOS support for OpenVPN.  Something for another article.)

The iOS client does not let you set the connection port.  This is typically done by adding the port to the hostname, such as "host:12345", but that's not honored either.

So as a result, to support iOS clients I have to keep PPTP at the standard port, and rely on my blacklisting tools.

Apple, please add this capability.  We need all the help we can get.

Smart Card Alliance Concludes Successful Mobile and NFC Webinar Series with Examination of NFC Use Cases and Security

PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., April 30, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Concluding its successful webinar series on mobile and NFC security, the Smart Card Alliance Mobile and NFC Council announced the fourth webinar, "NFC Application Use Cases -- Security ...



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Infonetics: Mobile Security Client Market Forecast to hit $2.9 Billion by 2017

Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its Mobile Device Security Client Software market size and forecasts report, which tracks enterprise and consumer security client software for mobile devices. “Real threats to ...



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Global Mobile Security (mSecurity) Market 2013-2018

The mobile security market is set for substantial growth over the next five years as research shows that the increasing proliferation of smart mobile devices is driving a market for complementary mobile services in management and security.



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SANS Mobile Device Security Summit Tackles BYOD

Top Mobile Security Experts and Practitioners will Share Proven Approaches for Securing BYOD Summit attendees will benefit from hands-on training and learn useful techniques which they can put to work as soon as they return to their offices. The summit ...



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Mobile Security Threats To Escalate, Experts Say

... announced the completion of the worldwide roll out of its proprietary cloud-based advanced security and privacy solution for Apple iOS mobile devices now available in the United States, Canada and Western Europe. This simple-to-use and affordable ...



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Accellion Announces Integration with MobileIron AppConnect

... from their mobile device while separating business and personal data and providing the Mobile IT organization with the security and access controls it needs. The Accellion solution provides secure viewing, editing, sharing and syncing of enterprise ...



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Sophos Updates Mobile Security Application for Android Devices

Blocked calls and text messages are logged in the Quarantine folder ... providing full administrator management and compliance enforcement. Mobile Control only allows devices compliant with an organization’s policies to access corporate email and ...



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Mocapay White Paper Reveals Mobile Payment Security

The White Paper (mobile security:What's the Risk?) documents the evolution and latest mobile payment developments that are changing how customers pay for merchandise using mobile devices. It also outlines what they need to know about the ...



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Targeted attack reveals flaws of mobile device management software

be able to assess risk in real-time, be able to do behavioural analysis and understand the vulnerabilities in every platform. In this test, a leading mobile device management software was used, along with a Samsung Galaxy S3 and an Apple iPhone 4.



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Data can be embedded in BitCoin Block Chain

I wasn't aware you could do this, but "2.5Mb of Wikileaks Cables Embedded in the Bitcoin Blockchain".  I wonder what the throughput of "IP over BitCoin" is...

BitCoin Trader Article

Greetings from Burning Man!

Crypto-Arab hippies sauntered by arm in arm with bearded ... cold statistics dictate that some will surely croak. Ran into Danny Hillis, the supercomputer designer, today. Hillis was standing in the coffee line. He's here with his wife and their three ...



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Custom Chips Could Be the Shovels in a Bitcoin Gold Rush

The digital “crypto-currency” Bitcoin surged into the public eye ... speedy graphics processors that are also popular with the builders of supercomputers. Small businesses popped up to sell mining rigs and the latest GPUs to other miners.



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World War II encryption for your e-mail

Experts suggest this is because the cipher produces completely random cipher-text and some believe that even the best supercomputers cannot crack ... from gaining access to your computer, the crypto supposedly will prevent access to your data.



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IBM Unveils zEnterprise EC12 for Cloud Computing and Enterprise Data.

Crypto Express4S includes new hardware and software developed ... IBM Blue Gene/Q-based “Sequoia” system at Lawrence Livermore National Lab the fastest supercomputer in the world. In zEC12, IBM adapted this technology to enable software to better ...



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MobileIron Working on Mobile App Management Interoperability?

Word below is they're working on interoperability for managing mobile apps.  Can MDM (device management) be far behind?  I hope not, as it's sorely lacking right now in the marketplace.

http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/jackmadden/archive/2013/04/10/mobileiron-is-working-on-an-open-app-alliance-for-mobile-app-management-interoperability-here-s-everything-we-know-so-far.aspx

What is Bitcoin? The future digital currency explained

Bitcoin is an online, decentralised, crypto-currency, that is monitored and administered ... they can only be created by the completion of tasks - and if companies build supercomputers to mine more efficiently, then the algorithm notices this and adjusts ...



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