Mobile News Round-up: Phishing Scams and Augmented Reality

Sifting through all of the content regarding mobile and apps can be a chore. There's so much information out there, it's easy to feel like a kid in a candy store, eyes wide and mouth gaping at all there is to see. Thus, we thought we would share with you the content we found to be the most interesting and/or noteworthy over the past week. We do this every Friday, so be sure to check back often for some light reading to ease your way into the weekend (since Friday was Cinco de Mayo, we suggest kicking back with a margarita while checking out this week's blog).

Enjoy!

Security

Google Docs Phishing Scam a Game Changer by Ericka Chickowski – Dark Reading, May 4, 2017.
Experts expect copycats that take advantage of passive authentication from third-party applications using standards such as OAuth.

Why OAuth Phishing Poses a New Threat to Users by Greg Martin – Dark Reading, May 4, 2017.
Credential phishing lets attackers gain back-end access to email accounts, and yesterday's Google Docs scam raises the risk to a new level.

SS7 Flaws Exploited in Attacks Against Mobile Users' Bank Accounts by Dark Reading Staff – Dark Reading, May 4, 2017.
Cyberthieves exploited long-known vulnerabilities in the Signaling System 7 (SS7) protocol, attacking bank accounts in Germany by intercepting two-factor authentication codes sent to mobile phones.

Retail Banking and Financial Services

22 Million People Use Bank of America's Mobile App by John Maxfield – The Motley Fool, May 4, 2017.
That ranks Bank of America behind only one other bank when it comes to active users of a banking app.

Digital Marketing and Mobile Advertising

Facebook's days of easy growth from the shift to mobile may be over by John Shinal – CNBC, May 3, 2017.

• The contribution of mobile sales to overall revenue has flattened out
• Mobile ad sales are already more than 50 percent of all ads in the industry
• Wall Street expects overall sales growth to slow in the second half of this year, and again next year

Snap’s Branded Storytelling a Bold Strategy for Mobile Advertisers by Daniel Meehan – AdExchanger, May 5, 2017.
You can’t monetize poor creative. Yet so many content creators, brands and publishers simply “turn on” advertising with an automated ad tech solution and check the proverbial box. The interruptive nature of many ads today are such that countless users simply walk away entirely.

Augmented Reality

How the iPhone could save mobile AR from Facebook and Snapchat by Oscar Raymundo – Macworld, May 4, 2017.
Will Apple make augmented reality more useful than simply a digital Halloween costume shop?

App Development

Apple updates its analytics service with new metrics showing how apps get discovered by Sarah Perez – TechCrunch, May 4, 2017.
Apple yesterday updated its App Analytics service for mobile app developers on iTunes Connect, which will now offer more detail on how users found an app – whether through browsing or searching the App Store, or if they were referred by way of another app or a website.

5 Tips for A Successful Mobile App Launch by Chip Espinoza – TECH.CO, May 2, 2017.
There are over 2 million apps available in Apple’s App Store and nearly 3 million in Google Play. New companies trying to launch an app today have a lot of competition. Getting attention for your app nowadays is no easy feat, and the organization and planning to have a successful app launch can be more strenuous and lengthy than people might guess.