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Spyware Demo Shows How Spooks Hack Mobile Phones
An anonymous reader writes: Joe Greenwood, of cybersecurity firm 4Armed, recently gave a live demonstration of some of Hacking Team's leaked spyware to the BBC. Tracking Bitcoin payments, recording audio from the microphone of a locked device, and secretly gaining control of an infected phone's camera are just a few of the software's capabilities. The BBC reports: "Both Mr Greenwood and 4Armed's technical director, Marc Wickenden, said they were surprised by the sleekness of the interface. Both point out, though, that customers could be paying upwards of £1m for the software and would expect it to be user-friendly, especially if it was intended for use by law enforcers on the beat. For the tracked user, though, there are very few ways of finding out that they are being watched. One red flag, according to Mr Greenwood, is a sudden spike in network data usage, indicating that information is being sent somewhere in the background. Experienced spies, however, would be careful to minimize this in order to remain incognito."
Franky, some of the supposed 'hacking team' code published previously looked like amateur hour at best.
Referring to the stuff posted here: http://f2bbs.com/thread/29421
http://f2bbs.com/thread/29421
ALL software, written competently, ought to minimize network data usage. But since such care is incredibly rare in the regular software world, why would it be any different in the spy software world?
Sure, an owned phone can feed back all sorts of information. It makes for great TV. But the story doesn't say, how they own the phone in the first place.
Are they exploiting some vulnerability in the phone to hijack it? Is the exploit remote? Is it OTA, WiFi, Bluetooth? Or, is this more dramatization of the same old, you have to manually download and install a malicious app?
... or in other words, foot patrol cops on a fishing expedition. Over and over again, the officials in our governments and law enforcement talk about how there are all these safeguards and how hard it is to use surveillance and time (Snowden) and time (Hacking Team crack) again the reality shows them for the lying autocrats that they are.
I wish someone would have made sure that Hacking Team, and other companies like them, no longer were in business permanently. Instead, we are leaning the other way, with "terrorism experts" saying that private companies should have their own equivalents of Internet armies.
captcha: warped
How long will it take before some member of some enforcement organization somewhere in the world sells a copy of this to some other organization?
Wonder how long until the pigs add this to their handheld point-and-drool phone data grabbers. You know, those things they use to nab the data of minorities at traffic stops and stop-and-frisks.
Sure. Why not just drop a trojan in there while your'e at it?
Who am I kidding. They probably don't even need physical contact to do it. Ever seen what the security researchers say about the baseband on your phone? You know, the embedded closed, un-auditable firmware OS that runs your phone's modem. The with hardware level access to the host system.
Hint- Whatever you're thinking, it's worse. If the spooks want to put malware on you're phone it's already there.
No torrent??
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
How long will it take before some member of some enforcement organization somewhere in the world sells a copy of this to some other organization?
Huh?
I thought:
- all this stuff (including the tools source code) was looted from "The Hacking Team" and dumped on the net.
- A security researcher compiled it and tested it.
- And this article was about what he got it to do.
So It's already out there, right now! Anybody who snagged a copy and figured out how to compile and run it can now do this.
Have I misunderstood something?
THIS is why it's not a good idea for governments to fund building and perfecting such tools, and to encourage the installation, rather than removal, of backdoors and vulnerabilities. Eventually they leak. Then these advanced capabilities are available to script kiddies, crooks, enemy spies, the tyrannical security forces of even minor regimes, and every jealous spouse and malicious bully with a trace of technical savvy.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Homeboys do not think dat phones is just as complicated as computers, but dey gots all the same problems. Until dey peep at dem da same dere will always be security problems brace yo'self foo'!
r de haxxorz nao
"Joe Greenwood .. gave a live demonstration of .. recording audio from the microphone of a locked device, and secretly gaining control of an infected phone's camera"
How exactly did the phone get 'infected' in the first place?
One of the thing we learned from the Hacking Team affair, is that the flash is one of the most frequent vector of infection. And the article has a flash movie... oh the irony!
Nobody should use the word spook anymore.
This software vs Xprivacy, ideally with SysScope frozen or removed. I wonder what this tool would show.....
Even if you do only send network traffic when there is a lot of other network traffic (to avoid obvious consistent network use), it means more buffering. Which means more memory/storage use. It's still detectable through purely statistical tools.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
"Is there anything we can do to protect ourselves from this spyware?"
"So the standard, um, advice for security is valid so installing antivirus, making sure you keep your phone secure and following standard security procedures, um."
So, basically, he has no real suggestions on how to protect your device.
So It's already out there, right now! Anybody who snagged a copy and figured out how to compile and run it can now do this.
Have I misunderstood something?
So if the hackingteam breach didn't occur you'll still have these... Umm things?