Category Archives: Phones

Evaluating the NSA’s Telephony Metadata Program

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Interesting analysis: "Examining the Anomalies, Explaining the Value: Should the USA FREEDOM Act’s Metadata Program be Extended?" by Susan Landau and Asaf Lubin. Abstract: The telephony metadata program which was authorized under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, remains one of the most controversial programs launched by the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Under… Continue reading Evaluating the NSA’s Telephony Metadata Program→

Spanish Soccer League App Spies on Fans

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The Spanish Soccer League’s smartphone app spies on fans in order to find bars that are illegally streaming its games. The app listens with the microphone for the broadcasts, and then uses geolocation to figure out where the phone is. The Spanish data protection agency has ordered the league to stop doing this. Not because it’s creepy spying, but because… Continue reading Spanish Soccer League App Spies on Fans→

Backdoor Built into Android Firmware

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In 2017, some Android phones came with a backdoor pre-installed: Criminals in 2017 managed to get an advanced backdoor preinstalled on Android devices before they left the factories of manufacturers, Google researchers confirmed on Thursday. Triada fir… Continue reading Backdoor Built into Android Firmware→

Backdoor Built into Android Firmware

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In 2017, some Android phones came with a backdoor pre-installed: Criminals in 2017 managed to get an advanced backdoor preinstalled on Android devices before they left the factories of manufacturers, Google researchers confirmed on Thursday. Triada first came to light in 2016 in articles published by Kaspersky here and here, the first of which said the malware was "one of… Continue reading Backdoor Built into Android Firmware→

Fingerprinting iPhones

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This clever attack allows someone to uniquely identify a phone when you visit a website, based on data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer sensors. We have developed a new type of fingerprinting attack, the calibration fingerprinting attack. Our attack uses data gathered from the accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer sensors found in smartphones to construct a globally unique fingerprint. Overall,… Continue reading Fingerprinting iPhones→

Recovering Smartphone Typing from Microphone Sounds

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Yet another side-channel attack on smartphones: "Hearing your touch: A new acoustic side channel on smartphones," by Ilia Shumailov, Laurent Simon, Jeff Yan, and Ross Anderson. Abstract: We present the first acoustic side-channel attack that re… Continue reading Recovering Smartphone Typing from Microphone Sounds→

Recovering Smartphone Typing from Microphone Sounds

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Yet another side-channel attack on smartphones: "Hearing your touch: A new acoustic side channel on smartphones," by Ilia Shumailov, Laurent Simon, Jeff Yan, and Ross Anderson. Abstract: We present the first acoustic side-channel attack that recovers what users type on the virtual keyboard of their touch-screen smartphone or tablet. When a user taps the screen with a finger, the tap… Continue reading Recovering Smartphone Typing from Microphone Sounds→

Clever Smartphone Malware Concealment Technique

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This is clever: Malicious apps hosted in the Google Play market are trying a clever trick to avoid detection — they monitor the motion-sensor input of an infected device before installing a powerful banking trojan to make sure it doesn’t load on emulators researchers use to detect attacks. The thinking behind the monitoring is that sensors in real end-user devices… Continue reading Clever Smartphone Malware Concealment Technique→

Cell Phone Security and Heads of State

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Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that the Russians and the Chinese were eavesdropping on President Donald Trump’s personal cell phone and using the information gleaned to better influence his behavior. This should surprise no one. Securit… Continue reading Cell Phone Security and Heads of State→