6 Forestanding Ways Your Smartphone could be hacked
Thursday, August 24, 2017 Unknown 0 Comments Category : Cyber-security
Have you ever been a victim of cyber espionage? Can you vouch for inbuilt security features or measures?
It is a fact that governments, the NSA, private organizations and individuals hack smartphones using malicious backdoors, phone apps, ATM skimming type software and wireless radio wave technology to gain illegal access to the unsuspecting smartphone user.
Through unfixed bugs in social media apps like Instagram earlier this year, or like the renown wannaCry virus
But how exactly are these backdoors opened or even created?. How did they even get into our phones. Well, you'll probably should be more conscious of these:
Text Messages
Hackers can take over your smart phone by sending a text message with a photo or video attached. In 2015, over a billion Android phones were affected by this security flaw known as “Stagefright.” According to arstechnica a disparaging Qualcomm security-bug, leaves many phones open to attack. The fix is unavailable for most users, and many will probably never get it. “The flaw, which is most severe in Android versions 4.3 and earlier, allows low-privileged apps to access sensitive data that’s supposed to be off-limits, according to a blog published by security firm, Fire Eye, but instead, the data is available by invoking permissions that are already requested by millions of apps available in Google Play.”
Inbuilt Security Flaws
Unfortunately even with Apple’s strong encryption standards, even an iPhone user’s privacy is still at serious risk and exposure. According to digitaltrends.com the illegal exposure was possible from a security flaw in Signaling System 7 (SS7), alittle-knownglobal network that connects all the phone carriers around the world. It’s known as the heart of the phone system. The bad news here is that it affects every phone on a cellular network, whether it’s running iOS, Android, or even Windows. Even if a user turns off location services on their phone, hackers would still be able to see the phone’s location via the network. “The theory is that the SS7 flaw is well known within the government, but it’s a hole that security agencies might not want plugged since it provides access to everyone’s phone.”
More Hardware Capabilities
The numerous hardware functions like the camera, accelerometer, gps, NFC in our smartphones are of great importance and even makes our phones smart, but also has its downfall.
According to cracked.com, once your phone has been hacked, your cell phone tilt sensor can “sense” what you are typing on your computer. Your phone’s accelerometer can pick up information such as messages, chats and passwords just based on the distance from the keys to the phone and deduce which letters you type.
GPS could reveal your exact location .and all this is done by a simple "SLY" request.
So beware.
Any Smartphone with near field capabilities (NFC)can steal credit card information just by being near them. According to Cracked, “the program’s creator, Eddie Lee, demonstrated the hack with his own phone at DefCon 2012, then released his simple app on the Internet as a flashing ‘Fuck you, fix this!’ sign to credit card companies.”
Unsecure Radio AirWaves
Ralf-Philipp Weinmann of the University of Luxembourg discovered that hackers infiltrate your phone through the airwaves themselves, through fake cell phone towers, completely bypassing your operating system and antivirus software to hack directly into the radio processor. This fake cell phone tower tricks your phone into thinking you are connected to a network. Much like the security flaw in SS7.
Unsecure Wifi in restaurants, hotels, and airports allows the hackers to view everything you do while connected. On iPhones, a message will warn the user by saying the server cannot be verified.
According to John Marinho, vice president of Technology & Cyber Security at CTIA, the wireless association, which represents phone carriers and manufactures. “The U.S. has one of the lowest malware infection rate in the world thanks to the entire wireless ecosystem working together and individually to vigilantly protect consumers.”
That might be true, but might also be a false security talk.
According to PCWorld, Edward Snowden has created an iPhone case meant to kill surveillance efforts by hackers who attempt to find your location. You can’t just turn off your location in settings on an iPhone, hackers have found a way around this. Snowden warned, “The GPS, for instance, will still remain active on some handsets, like the iPhone. In the worst-case scenario, malware could also infect the handset to secretly send radio transmissions, he added.”
Snowden’s iPhone case is designed to protect journalists from governments spying their locations. “Unfortunately, journalists can be betrayed by their own tools,” he added. “That may have happened in 2012, when U.S. reporter Marie Colvin was killed while covering the Syrian civil war.” A lawsuit alleges that the Syrian government assassinated her by tracking Colvin’s satellite phone communications to find her location.
Robert Nazarian, from Digitaltrends.com shared critical information in an article dated April 2016. Nazarian says, “U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., a member of the House Budget Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called for a full investigation into the SS7 issue and sent a Letter dated April 18, 2016, to Honorable Jason Chaffetz, Chairman, and Honorable Elijia Cummings, Ranking Member, of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
In the letter to Chaffets and Cummings, Lieu says:
“ANYONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT THIS FLAW AND DIDN’T ACTIVELY TRY TO REMEDY IT SHOULD BE FIRED. WE CAN’T HAVE 300 SOME MILLION AMERICANS, AND REALLY THE GLOBAL CITIZENRY, BE AT RISK OF HAVING THEIR PHONE CONVERSATIONS INTERCEPTED WITH A KNOWN FLAW SIMPLY BECAUSE SOME INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES MIGHT GET SOME DATA,” HE SAID. THAT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.”
Of course, Edward Snowden outed himself as the NSA whistleblower, because he thought the current NSA surveillance techniques were a threat to democracy, and many individuals agree with him and are in his corner. It was confirmed that the NSA has DEEP HOOKS in Big Tech, including real time access to the data of American citizens.
George Orwell warned of big government overstepping their boundaries. In his book titledNineteen Eighty Four the term Big Brother is a fictional dictatorship used to refer toany ruler or government that invades the privacy of its citizens.
In 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
