We’re depending more on cell phones than landlines

We’re depending more on cell phones than landlines

NEW YORK — Americans have become more dependent on their cell phones than conventional phones.

For the first time, Americans say they would have more trouble giving up a cell phone than a traditional phone, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said in a report Wednesday. Less than two years earlier, respondents considered their landlines the most crucial technology.

“The preferences have flipped,” said John Horrigan, author of the new Pew report. “During that timeframe, people have gotten new devices that have more capabilities. People have more experience using cell phones for text messaging and other information tools. That has helped pushed cell phones as ‘go to’ devices.”

The new survey found that 58 percent of cell phone users have sent or received text messages, an increase from 41 percent in April 2006.

On a typical day, 31 percent of cell phone owners use text messaging and 15 percent use the devices’ camera features. About 8 percent use the phone to play games and a similar percentage use it for e-mail.

According to Pew, the cell phone is the technological tool its users would have most difficulty giving up, followed by the Internet and television. Landline phones ranked fourth in the latest survey, just above e-mail.

In April 2006, the landline phone topped the list, followed by television, cell phones and the Internet.

The latest study of 2,054 adults was conducted Oct. 24 to Dec. 2 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, higher for subgroups. The random phone survey reached out to both landline and cell phone owners.

New anti-fraud tool can’t prevent hacking

SAN JOSE, Calif. — When a small padlock appears in your Web browser’s address bar or the entire bar turns green, it seems like a powerful signal you’re safe to proceed.

But experts say the SSL certificates those green lights signify — digital stamps of approval that Web sites buy to prove they’re running a legitimate business and can send and receive encrypted data safely — don’t provide the safety they seem to.

“They instill some sense of security, but that could be a dangerously false sense of security,” said Paul Mutton, a researcher with UK-based security firm Netcraft Ltd.

Attacks are still possible because having an SSL certificate only indicates that a third party has verified the identity of the site’s owner and set up an encrypted line of communication with the site.

The site itself could still be riddled with security holes for hackers to exploit. And the certificate could simply be bogus: Criminals have been forging them to get the padlock icon and dress up fraudulent sites.

In response, companies that sell the certificates began offering an enhanced version about a year ago.

But even those sites may contain malicious code. Researchers from Netcraft said last week they discovered vulnerabilities in four sites boasting Extended Validation SSL certificates.

Criminals could exploit the flaws to create programs to steal passwords and credit card numbers, for example. Data stolen by those malicious programs is siphoned off outside the encryption SSL provides, and thus is totally visible to hackers, Netcraft’s Mutton said.

Associated Press