The battle between InfoSec professionals and hackers is like a never ending story of good vs not so good. In the latest chapter of this ongoing saga, hackers have targeted the smartphone. One group figured out a method to hack smartphones and security pros are looking for ways to stop them. While the trouble has mostly occurred in other countries, the U.S. needs to brace itself for the onslaught of this threat. The best defense as in most other hacker attacks is proper education and a proactive approach to security by the end user.
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Criminals have been probing the systems that protect U.S. smartphone users for years, searching for the right combination of programming tricks and social engineering that would allow them to sneak onto users' phones. Recently, one hacker group hit the jackpot.
They took a year-old mobile virus named NotCompatible, which allows hackers to take complete control of a phone, and posted the malicious code on websites. Then they sent out enticing spam emails with links to the booby-trapped sites. The emails were all the more tempting because they appeared to come from friends or others on the recipients’ contact list. Victims who clicked on the link from their phones and downloaded the file surrendered control of their Android phones to the criminals. Security firm Lookout says 10,000 customers per day are still being tricked to click on the bogus link and landing on the booby-trapped pages, and virtually all of them are in the U.S.]
source:redtape.nbcnews.com
@ITSecPr0
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