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Smartphones are increasingly popular not only with consumers, but also with thieves who see the devices as another way to tap into bank accounts and other sensitive information, experts say.

Many consumers simply don’t realize how vulnerable their Androids, iPhones and other devices can be. An April study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta said threats are proliferating, ranging from “phishing” — where consumers click a phony email or text message and are tricked into handing over personal information — to consumers’ reluctance to use security protections they normally have on home computers, like a password.

The study said there are several things that can make smartphones an easy target. Vast amounts of personal data are stored in emails, texts and other applications, and personal information is increasingly easily found on social media. Organized crime operations also see smartphones as the most vulnerable entry point into the electronic financial system, according to the Federal Reserve.

“We have some very bad characters who would like to take our money, take our identification, and run away with it,” said Marie Gooding, first vice president of the Atlanta Fed. 

Research the Fed cited, done by Boston-based Trusteer Inc., involved 20 computer servers that were used to send out more than 100,000 “phishing” emails. By studying the server records, Trusteer found that about 2,200 of the 3,000 responses the scam artists received came from smartphones.

Doug Johnson, vice president of risk management for the American Bankers Association, said he expects those numbers to get worse.

“This is one more platform criminals will continue to exploit as the channel grows,” he said.

The Fed helps operate the industry’s Automated Clearing House, a system that processed 21 billion transactions last year. While banks are required to adhere to authentication standards for ACH transactions, those protections are often unknowingly compromised by consumers.

“A lot of it has to do with all of the players making sure they have the strongest security controls they have, and then consumers being aware of what those controls are, and making use of them,” Gooding said.

Miami attorney Andrew Carter learned the hard way, after misplacing his phone amid the hubbub of a Christmas vacation. He had a mobile banking app installed on his phone, but had turned off his passcode lock because he found it annoying to enter whenever he wanted to use the phone.

“That was a big mistake,” he said. “I knew it intellectually, but I hadn’t really intuitively grasped that I had to be able to be a lot more secure with it.”

Weeks later, Carter found $2,000 had been withdrawn from his account by someone in Texas, possibly through emails retrieved from his phone. He also found someone trying to hack his Facebook account. 

Today, he keeps his phone locked and changed to a brand that allows him to remotely erase phone data — something he couldn’t do with his old phone.

Several manufacturers are planning new “biometric” technology, such as fingerprint scanners, that can make phones more secure. But even with those safeguards, consumer behavior can still lead to danger.

Vikram Thakur, principal security response manager for security software giant Symantec, said attackers can get complete control of a phone simply by getting people to click on a link. Without actually having the phone in their hands, the hackers can access messages, phone calls and personal information.

“The amount of information we’re storing on mobile phones these days kind of incentivizes the attackers to go after the platform,” he said.

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The man arrested in connection with the disappearance of Hamilton’s Timothy Bosma is the heir to an Ontario aviation dynasty and once held the world record for the youngest solo helicopter flight.

Dellen Millard, 27, of Toronto, was arrested and charged in Mississauga in connection with Bosma’s disappearance Saturday morning. His family founded and ran Millard Air, a charter airline that once flew out of Toronto and has operations in Waterloo Region, where Hamilton police were seen investigating Saturday at Millard Air’s hangar at the airport.

Bosma disappeared in Hamilton Monday when he took two men for a test drive of a pickup truck he was trying to sell online. Police have since been searching for two suspects, one of whom was described as having a tattoo on his wrist that reads “ambition.”

Millard, who police believe was driving the pickup truck during the incident, has such a tattoo, police said. Millard was arrested on Cawthra Rd. in Mississauga Saturday morning without incident. He was charged with forcible confinement and theft over $5,000.

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“Tim Bosma has not been located and our greatest priority is the welfare and locating of (him),” Hamilton Police Supt. Dan Kinsella said during a media briefing Saturday afternoon.

The remaining suspect is still at large. Police in three cities — Toronto, Waterloo and Hamilton — are participating in the investigation.

Toronto police blocked off Maple Gate Crt. in Etobicoke Saturday afternoon to investigate a house connected to the arrest of Millard. Hamilton police were seen at Millard Air Hangar 53 at the Waterloo Regional Airport the same day.

The Millard family has a storied history in Ontario’s aviation industry. Dellen’s grandfather, Carl, founded the private commercial airline, the Star reported in 1999.

Wayne Millard, Dellen’s father, took the reins on a 50,000-square-foot aircraft maintenance facility in Waterloo, according to Canadian Skies, an aviation trade publication.

Wayne died in late 2012. His obituary, published in the Star, was written by Dellen and praises Wayne’s love for animals and commitment to flying.

In 1999, Dellen became the youngest person to fly a helicopter solo at 14 years old, setting a world record and earning a free breakfast from the Brampton Flying Club. He set another record by taking his first solo flight in a Cessna 172, making him the youngest to fly both a helicopter and fixed-wing plane solo in one day.

“It was a great flight,” he told the Star then, moments after landing the Cessna and receiving applause from family members. “It went by a lot faster than I thought it would.”

The Brampton Flying Club refused to comment Saturday, telling the Star a manager would be available Monday.

“I really thought he turned out fine and I’d see him someday at an airline,” said Marilyn Daigle, Dellen’s flight instructor in 1999, who’s now a commercial pilot in Toronto. “He was sweet, smart, really lovely to teach . . . I just hope it doesn’t end up being true.”

Dellen Millard’s passion for planes seems to have been grounded later in life, as he turned his attention towards automobiles. He and a friend are listed as drivers in the 2009 Baja 1000, an off-road race in Mexico, according to the race roster.

Facebook photos of Dellen posted on the friend’s account show him working on vehicles in what appears to be an airport hangar. Calls to the friend’s home were not returned.

The other suspect, still at large, is described as white, between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-10, with a small to medium build, dark hair. He was last seen wearing a red-hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up over his head.

“It is critical that we inform you of (Dellen Millard’s) arrest, however it is much more important that we continue to pursue every evidentiary lead,” Kinsella said Saturday.

On Friday, police announced they recovered Bosma’s cellphone in an industrial complex in Brantford, which is the direction he was last believed to be heading with the men.

Police believe his vehicle was in the area of downtown Brantford around 10:10 p.m. Monday, May 6. They are asking business owners with surveillance cameras to review their footage between 9:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. that day.

Bosma’s Dodge Ram, which has not been recovered, is described as black with an Ontario licence plate number 726 7ZW.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Hamilton police’s dedicated tip line at 905-546-2100.

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The company said in a release Tuesday that it now expects that same-store sales growth will be flat, because seasonal and weather-sensitive sales were softer than anticipated.

, Fortune 500) said it expects first-quarter earnings per share to come in slightly below the low end of its previous guidance of $1.10 to $1.20 when it reports earnings on May 22. It did not change its full-year guidance.

The prolonged winter weather has held shoppers back from their usual spring purchases across the board so far this year. Last week, the Census Bureau reported that retail sales fell 0.4% in March, as much of the U.S. suffered through cooler-than-average temperatures.

Shares of the company were down slightly in early trading.

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The accountant and the jeweler were longtime friends and golf partners. But the accountant was passing private information about two companies to the jeweler, who used it to play the stock market. Now they’re both under federal investigation, their reputations unraveling on a very public stage.

The scandal over a KPMG accountant passing information about client companies Herbalife and Skechers has unfolded in pieces this week. Late Monday KPMG announced it fired a partner in Los Angeles who leaked nonpublic information about companies that KPMG worked with. On Tuesday nutritional supplement maker Herbalife and shoe seller Skechers announced that they were the companies whose information was leaked. On Wednesday the fired KPMG partner, Scott London, publicly identified himself through his lawyer and issued a statement saying he deeply regretted his actions and was just trying to help a friend.

Thursday brought one of the remaining pieces of the puzzle. Bryan Shaw identified himself as the friend who got insider information from London.

In a statement through his lawyer, Nathan Hochman, Shaw said he received information from London “about a number of companies” from 2010 to 2012. He said he had “profited substantially” from trading stocks based on that information, but he didn’t provide details.

“I cannot begin to apologize for my incredibly stupid actions,” said Shaw, who runs a wholesale jewelry company. “There is no excuse for my wrongful conduct. I accept full and complete responsibility for what I have done and know that I will spend the rest of my life trying to make up for my tragic lapses of judgment.”

Shaw paid London for the information, but it isn’t clear how much. London’s lawyer Harland Braun has said it was “about $25,000″ over several years.

London said in his statement that he never leaked any documents. He described the interactions as his friend asking whether a stock was a good buy and London offering suggestions.

The FBI, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating. Lawyers for Shaw and London said their clients are cooperating.

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Chinese industrial companies

Premier Kathleen Wynne is on a byelection tour of southwestern Ontario to kick off March break, but she isn’t in a rush to pull the trigger on races to replace retired cabinet ministers in Windsor and London.

“We don’t have a firm date,” Wynne said at a campaign-style stop in Windsor on Monday, where former finance minister Dwight Duncan stepped down as the MPP for Windsor—Tecumseh last month.

She called Windsor “the best-kept secret in the province.”

Wynne heads to London on Tuesday, where the riding of London West has been vacant since beleaguered former energy minister Chris Bentley resigned on Feb. 14.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath also stops in London Tuesday.

The Liberals aren’t ready in Windsor because the party doesn’t have a candidate now that Sandra Pupatello, the popular former Windsor West MPP who placed second to Wynne in the party’s leadership race in January, has declined to return to politics online payday loans.

“I don’t even think the riding association knows exactly who is going to put their names forward,” Wynne told reporters.

A recent Forum Research poll suggested the NDP is poised to take Duncan’s seat without Pupatello running as a Liberal.

“It’s a riding that’s in play,” said New Democrat Taras Natyshak, MPP for neighbouring Essex, adding that she thought Wynne was “clearly feeling out the territory.”

While Wynne has until mid-August to call the two byelections, Queen’s Park insiders aren’t expecting any sudden moves with her minority Liberal government waiting to see if its spring budget passes, which would avert a provincial election.

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One thing’s for sure on the day after the election: the 2010 law to reform Wall Street isn’t going away.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had pledged to repeal the sweeping Dodd-Frank Act, the Democrats’ response to big banks’ risky behavior that led to the 2008 financial crisis. The law put curbs on banks’ ability to make risky investments and introduced new rules safeguarding some complex financial bets that spurred the bailout of insurer , Fortune 500).

It’s unlikely that House Republican attempts to roll back the reforms — efforts they’ve made since recapturing the chamber in 2011 — will get anywhere. Besides a re-elected President Obama and his veto power, Democrats retain the Senate with the help of a major champion of Wall Street reform, Harvard University professor Elizabeth Warren.

“This puts to bed any notion that Dodd-Frank will be repealed, so then the question becomes: Are we going to make changes around the margins?” said Mark Calabria, an economist at the libertarian Cato Institute who used to work for Republicans on the Senate Banking panel.

All signs point to yes.

Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said in an October speech at the Bipartisan Policy Center that “there’s clearly a lot of additional work to be done.”

While some Wall Street reforms, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, are churning away, the law pushed to regulators a number of big decisions. They included how much cash banks should hold aside as capital cushions and stopping banks from making speculative bets, a provision named the Volcker rule after its chief proponent, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.

The result is that regulators have struggled to agree on the more controversial measures no fax cash advance. As of Nov. 1, regulators had missed 61% of their deadlines implementing parts of Dodd-Frank, according to the law firm Davis Polk.

For example, there’s still disagreement among regulators about whether the Volcker rule should allow banks the ability to take on some risk when setting up big, market-making bets on behalf of clients.

That’s a big deal for taxpayers, who would be on the hook if the Fed decides it’s in the nation’s interest to bail out a troubled bank whose risky bets arranged for a client go sour and threaten the financial system’s stability.

But a big unknown is how a second-term Obama administration could change the tone at federal banking agencies.

All indications are that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will step down. Rumors have swirled that Securities and Exchange Commission chief Mary Schapiro could step down before her term ends in 2014. Commodity Futures Trading Commission chief Gary Gensler’s term was up in April, although he can legally serve through 2013. And Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s term is up in 2014.

Obama won office with little to no support from Wall Street, which could make him think twice before he considers candidates from that sector to run financial regulatory agencies this time around.

And the pressing deficit and budget concerns could make divert the Treasury Department’s attention from anything else.

“If Obama goes with a budget person for Treasury Secretary, I think a lot of this financial regulation really starts to fall to the back burner,” Calabria said.

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President Obama and Mitt Romney each used their second presidential debate to talk tough on China.

Romney pledged that he would label China as a currency manipulator on his first day in office — a promise he frequently works into his campaign speeches. And he accused China of “stealing” designs, patents and technology pioneered by U.S. companies.

“There’s even an Apple store in China that’s a counterfeit Apple store, selling counterfeit goods,” Romney said. “They hack into our computers. We will have to have people play on a fair basis.”

Obama was more circumspect in his use of language, but he touted the trade complaints his administration has filed against China over auto parts. Obama also recently blocked the sale of American wind farm companies to a Chinese firm.

Talking tough on China has become a campaign ritual for politicians of both parties — even if, as experts predict, the rhetoric moderates after Nov. 6 regardless of who wins.

The latest criticisms from the Republican candidate comes after the Treasury Department last week delayed the release of a report that has in the past criticized China for keeping the value of its currency artificially low.

Delays are nothing new, but the next edition of the report is now unlikely to be issued until after the election.

The president has run a campaign that has repeatedly sought to draw connections between Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital and the outsourcing of American jobs to China.

“Mitt Romney: tough on China? Since when?” a recent ad asked.

“[Romney] says he’s gonna take the fight to them, he’s going to go after these cheaters, and I’ve got to admit, that message is better than what he has actually done about this thing,” Obama said earlier this month in Ohio.

Romney and Obama are not the first presidential candidates to beat up on China.

Bill Clinton famously referred to China’s leaders as the “butchers of Beijing” during the 1992 presidential race. Four years later, George W. Bush criticized Clinton for being too easy on China.

“These guys all ate crow,” said David Zweig, an associate dean at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “Once in office, presidents tend to change their behavior.”

That shift is not surprising given the nature of the relationship. China is one of the United States’ largest trading partners, and the economies of the two countries — the largest and second largest in the world — are increasingly interconnected.

Beijing holds more than $1 trillion in U.S. debt, and U.S. exports to China are on the rise. China’s currency, the yuan, has been allowed to appreciate in recent years but many American businesses argue it still does not reflect its true market value, giving Chinese exporters an unfair competitive advantage.

Many analysts worry that Romney’s plan to label China a currency manipulator could backfire, and the specificity of the promise leaves him few options but to follow through.

“He has created a huge problem for himself,” Zweig said. “He has said consistently he will do it. So how does he climb down from that?”

Economists are even more worried about the second part of Romney’s initial China plan, which is to direct the Department of Commerce to institute countervailing duties on Chinese imports if China “does not quickly move to float its currency.”

That could spark a trade war between the two countries — a circumstance likely to end unhappily for both Beijing and Washington.

The Obama administration has taken protectionist actions, introducing tariffs on Chinese-made solar panels and tires.

But the benefits have been hard to discern, and consumers have ended up paying more for goods. According to a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the tire tariff cost American consumers a total of $1.1 billion in 2011.

Chinese officials have tolerated the campaign rhetoric with relatively good humor so far. Comment has been restricted to editorials in state-run media that are particularly critical of Romney.

Zweig said that China’s top officials are very much in tune with the realities of American politics, even down to which states are crucial to secure electoral victory.

But talk is one thing, Zweig said, and action is another. Should a future administration depart from precedent and become significantly more aggressive toward China, Beijing will respond.

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The cost of employer-sponsored family health insurance premiums jumped again this year, but the rate at which they rose slowed to historic lows, according to a new survey Tuesday.

For insured workers, the cost of buying health insurance for a family of four increased 4% to $15,745 in 2012, according to a survey conducted by Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust.

Last year, premiums leaped 9% from the year before.

“These are strikingly low numbers to those of us who have been studying health costs for a long time,” said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “A 4% increase in health premiums is good news.”

Altman said there are several factors that could have led to the slowdown, including the economy’s slow recovery. When people have less money to spend and wages are flat — as they have been in recent years — they avoid getting medical care. Compounding the issue is the rise of high-deductible plans and other forms of cost sharing, like co-pays, that cause families to pick up a larger percentage of the bill.

“Health care use and the economy have always been closely tied, and my sense is that the recession and slow recovery are responsible for much of the recent health spending and premium trends,” Altman said.

While premiums appear to be improving, health care costs still weighed heavily on families. The report showed that premiums for family coverage outpaced both workers’ wages and general inflation. In less than a decade, premiums have increased 97%, roughly three times as fast as wages and inflation.

“It still takes a growing bite out of middle-class workers’ wages, which have been flat or falling in real terms,” Altman said.

This burden was even harder to shoulder for lower-income families. At companies where at least 35% of workers earn $24,000 or less, employees paid an average of $1,000 more each year than workers at companies where at least 35% of employees earn $55,000 or more, the report found.

And it’s not just premiums. Lower-wage employees were also more likely to pay high deductibles. The survey found that 44% of workers at companies with many low-wage employees face an annual deductible of $1,000 or more, compared with 29% of those at companies with many high-wage workers.

“This year’s survey suggests that working families at the low end of the wage scale face significant out of pocket costs for coverage,” said study lead author Gary Claxton in a statement. “Firms with many lower-wage workers ask employees to pay more out of pocket … even though the coverage itself tends to be less comprehensive.”

Altman said he doesn’t expect a return to double-digit increases in premiums anytime soon, especially as provisions from the Affordable Care Act kick in.

Even though much of the health reform law won’t go into effect until 2014, the report estimated that the number of young adults covered by employer plans increased to 2.9 million this year from 2.3 million in 2011, as a result of the provision that lets young adults stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26.

The 14th annual Kaiser survey was conducted between January and May 2012, and polled 3,326 small and large employers with three or more workers.

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Car sales jumped in August, as major automakers all reported better-than-expected demand on Tuesday.

Industrywide U.S. car sales jumped 19.9% compared to a year ago, according to sales tracker Autodata. That works out to an annual sales pace of 14.52 million vehicles, which topped forecasts and nearly matched the pace in August 2009, when demand was inflated by the “Cash for Clunkers” program.

It also marked a nice rebound from disappointing July car sales and raised hopes that they aren’t about to lose steam.

Better access to financing and some signs of improvement in the labor market are likely factors in the stronger sales. Pent up demand from the weaker July sales could also have contributed to the jump, according to experts. Automakers achieved the better sales even while cutting back on incentives used to lure in buyers.

“Clearly the underlying consumer demand is strong,” said analyst Jesse Toprak of TrueCar. “This is a combination of factors you want as an automaker: Sales are up, transaction prices were up, incentives are down.”

Sales at , Fortune 500) were up 10.1% from a year ago, while , Fortune 500) reported a 12.6% rise. Chrysler Group posted a 14.1% improvement over a year ago.

The sales increases were even stronger at Japanese automakers ) and ). But their monthly sales were in comparison to a year ago, when supplies of new cars were limited by the effects of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

Fuel efficient models were popular with buyers amid rising gas prices.

“The small car performance is what’s most impressive about GM’s numbers today,” said Edmunds’ senior analyst Jessica Caldwell. “Cruze, Sonic, and Spark were all unknown nameplates just a few years ago, but now they almost equal the volume of Silverado, the core of Chevys identity.”

In addition, the plug-in hybrid Volt posted record sales of 2,831, up more than 800% from a year ago and more than 24% better than its previous record set in March.

But it wasn’t just economy cars that enjoyed improved sales. Sales of large pickups, a key market segment that U.S. automakers dominate, also increased 15.7%, likely helped by signs of a recovery in the housing market. The home building industry is a major buyer of pickups.

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