Researcher To Demo Spy-Phone At Black Hat Las Vegas 2013

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.infosecnews.org/researcher-to-demo-spy-phone-at-black-hat-las-vegas-2013/

By Robert Lemos
Dark Reading
June 26, 2013

Security researchers have warned that mobile phones could easily be made 
into surveillance devices that can track users, record audio and video of 
their surroundings, and eavesdrop on their communications. Now one 
researcher plans to show off a proof-of-concept program at the Black Hat 
Security Briefings this summer that can compromise a phone and turn it 
into just such an eavesdropping platform.

The program, created by researchers at network security firm Kindsight, 
essentially turns any Android phone into a compromised bot, allowing the 
attacker to eavesdrop on communications, track location, download personal 
information and take pictures without the victim’s knowledge. In addition, 
the researchers will show how they developed the architecture of the 
eavesdropping software and ways that it can be easily added as a Trojan 
Horse to any mobile app.

"This is a demonstration, a proof-of-concept malware," says Kevin McNamee, 
security architect and director of Kindsight’s Security Labs. "We use this 
as a way to show the capabilities of the malware and show how dangerous 
cyberespionage can be."

While only a small fraction of U.S. mobile users are impacted by malware, 
spyware makes up a large portion of the pantheon of mobile threats. As of 
March 2013, almost two out of every 10 malicious mobile applications 
qualifies as spyware, according to Juniper Networks' Mobile Threat Center. 
The company classifies any program that captures and transfer sensitive 
data on the phone without notifying the user as spyware.

[...]

http://www.darkreading.com/advanced-threats/researcher-to-demo-spy-phone-at-black-ha/240157439

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