“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday published an Apple patent filing for an anti-spoofing method in which camera output, as well as data from other on-board sensors, are used to change a browser’s GUI in real-time,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.
“As Apple’s iOS and Mac computing devices become more popular among mainstream consumers, the company has faced a number of security threats attempting to garnish sensitive user information. A new patent application discovered on Thursday addresses a specific type of Web-based attack called spoofing,” Campbell reports. “Apple’s filing for a ‘Graphical user interface element incorporating real-time environment data’ is an attempt to deal with nefarious code that can ‘spoof,’ or mimic, a Web browser’s graphical user interface. In such cases, the malicious creator can redirect a user to another spoofed webpage, tricking them into giving up personal data, like usernames, passwords and credit card numbers.”
Campbell reports, “To address the threat, Apple has devised a system which uses a device’s various on-board sensors, including cameras, ambient light sensors and microphones, among others, to constantly update a browser’s GUI — sometimes referred to as ‘chrome’ — with real-time environment data. ”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]