Android Phones - The New Corporate Espionage Tool

Alcatel-Lucent’s Kindsight subsidiary has released figures that show an increase in malicious software (malware) used by hackers to gain access to devices for corporate espionage, spying on individuals, theft of personal information, generating spam, denial of service attacks on business and governments and millions of dollars in fraudulent banking and advertising scams.

“Malware and cybersecurity threats continue to be a growing problem for home networks and mobile devices, particularly for Android smartphones and tablets which are increasingly targeted,” said Kevin McNamee, security architect and director of Alcatel-Lucent’s Kindsight Security Labs.

“A third of the top 15 security threats are now spyware related, up from only two spyware instances the last quarter,” said McNamee. “MobileSpy and FlexiSpy were already in the top 15 list, but SpyBubble moved up to take the 4th spot, while SpyMob and PhoneRecon appeared for the first time, ranking 5th and 7th respectively.

“Mobile spyware in the BYOD context poses a threat to enterprises because it can be installed surreptitiously on an employee’s phone and used for industrial or corporate espionage.”

McNamee said it is “surprisingly easy” to add a command and control interface to allow the attacker to control the device remotely, activating the phone’s camera and microphone without the user’s knowledge.

“This enables the attacker to monitor and record business meetings from a remote location. The attacker can even send text messages, make calls or retrieve and modify information stored on the device – all without the user’s knowledge.

“The mobile phone is a fully functional network device. When connected to the company’s Wi-Fi, the infected phone provides backdoor access to the network and the ability to probe for vulnerabilities and assets. (more)

Security Directors: FREE Security White Paper - "Surreptitious Workplace Recording ...and what you can do about it."  

SIM Card Flaw Could Allow Eavesdropping on Phone Conversations

Vulnerability in the security key that protects the card could allow eavesdropping on phone conversations, fraudulent purchases, or impersonation of the handset's owner, a security researcher warns.

Karsten Nohl, founder of Security Research Labs in Berlin, told The New York Times that he has identified a flaw in SIM encryption technology that could allow an attacker to obtain a SIM card's digital key, the 56-digit sequence that allows modification of the card. The flaw, which may affect as many as 750 million mobile phones, could allow eavesdropping on phone conversations, fraudulent purchases, or impersonation of the handset's owner, Nohl warned. 

Can you decode the code?

"We can remotely install software on a handset that operates completely independently from your phone," warned Nohl, who said he managed the entire operation in less than two minutes using a standard PC. "We can spy on you. We know your encryption keys for calls. We can read your SMSs. More than just spying, we can steal data from the SIM card, your mobile identity, and charge to your account." (more)


The U.N.'s Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union, which has reviewed the research, described it as "hugely significant."

Cracking SIM cards has long been the Holy Grail of hackers because the tiny devices are located in phones and allow operators to identify and authenticate subscribers as they use networks. (more)
 

You’ve Nicked Hackers... Now Expose the Buggers

UK - Phone hacking is a crude but preventable means of invading someone’s privacy.

You can go to jail for it — and many journalists face this risk as they await trial.

By comparison, breaking into a telecoms substation, plugging into a landline and intercepting private phone calls and computer traffic is a really serious crime.

Yet while those journalists were arrested at dawn and charged after long periods on police bail, nobody has been arraigned for bugging despite evidence over many years.

The difference between the two offences is important.

Hacking is opportunistic eavesdropping. Bugging is nothing less than espionage.

Once a bug is attached by stealth, it can monitor every spoken word and keystroke without the subscriber ever knowing.  (more)

The Wild Wild West - Town to Issue Drone Hunting Permits

Deer Trail, a small Colorado town, is considering a measure that would allow its residents to hunt for federal drones and shoot them down.

“Is it illegal? Of course it is. But it’s also illegal to spy on American citizens,” resident Phillip Steel told CNN in a phone interview. “If they fly in town, we will shoot them down.”

Steel said he wrote the ordinance after he learned the Federal Aviation Administration “loosened regulations that would allow the flight of drones in domestic airspace.” (more)

Bug Found in Office of Berlusconi's Judge

An electronic bug was found in the offices of the Italian judges due to hear a final appeal this month by former premier Silvio Berlusconi against a tax fraud conviction, news reports said Friday.

An employee of the Court of Cassation discovered a device used to record or intercept conversations and alerted police Thursday afternoon, the Rome-based Il Tempo newspaper said.

The bug, which was removed by police, did not have any batteries, the daily said. (more)

If You Can Pee, You Can Make a Phone Call

If asked what would be a great power source for mobile phones, it’s a fair bet that most people wouldn't make urine their first choice. But that's exactly what a group of scientists at Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the UK have done. As part of a project to find new ways to provide electricity for small devices in emergency situations and developing countries they have created a new fuel cell system powered by pee.

 The key to this rather unorthodox way of powering a phone is a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that converts organic matter directly into electricity. Inside the MFC, there are a mixture of ordinary anaerobic microorganisms that release electrons as they feed – in this case, on the urine. (more)

Thus giving a whole new meaning to streaming media. (rimshot!) Gee whiz.

Mobile Security Apps Perform Dismally Against Spyware

via Josh Kirschner at Techlicious...

Mobile spyware can have a devastating effect on your life; the constant fear that a spouse, significant other or even employer is following your every move, knows everything about your life and has completely removed any vestige of privacy...

And spyware is not as rare as you may think. According to mobile security company Lookout, .24% of Android phones they scanned in the U.S. had surveillance-ware installed intended to target a specific individual. Sophos reports a similar .2% infection rate from spyware. If those numbers hold true for Android users in general, that would mean tens of thousands could be infected.

I set out to test the leading Android anti-malware vendors to see how they fared at protecting us against the threat of spyware...

The results, generally speaking, were dismal. Of twelve products I tested, none was able to detect more than two-thirds of the samples. Many missed half or more of the spyware apps. And, surprisingly, the potential spyware apps least likely to be detected were those widely available in Google Play. (more)

Josh did an excellent job researching this topic and we thank him for publicly exposing the flaws. 

Now, what can be done about really detecting spyware?

Murray Associates was approached by two clients several years ago who had come to the same conclusion as Josh via their own research. They asked us to develop a solution – based on the following conditions:
  1. The solution must make quick and reasonable spyware evaluations. 
  2. No special forensic tools should be required. 
  3. No special skills should be necessary.
  4. No assistance should be necessary once the initial training is over. The phone owner must be able to conduct the test him- or herself—anytime, anyplace.
  5. Advancements in spyware software and cell phone hardware should not render the test ineffective.

The results of this project are published in the book, "Is My Cell Phone Bugged?", and are used in SpyWarn 2.0, a unique Android spyware detection app.

Android Malware that Gives Hackers Remote Control is Rising (Technical but important news.)

via... Sean Gallagher - Ars Technica 
Remote access tools have long been a major part of targeted hacker attacks on individuals and corporate networks. RATs* have been used for everything from hacking the e-mail boxes of New York Times reporters to capturing video and audio of victims over their webcams. Recently, wireless broadband and the power of smartphones and tablets have extended hackers’ reach beyond the desktop. In a blog post yesterday, Symantec Senior Software Engineer Andrea Lelli described the rise of an underground market for malware tools based on Androrat, a remote administration tool that can give an attacker complete control over devices running the Android OS.

Androrat was published on GitHub in November 2012 as an open source tool for remote administration of Android devices. Packaged as a standard Android application (in an APK file), Androrat can be installed as a service on the device that launches at start-up or as a standard “activity” application. Once it’s installed, the user doesn’t need to interact with the application at all—it can be activated remotely by an SMS message or a call from a specific phone number.

The app can grab call logs, contact data, and all SMS messages on the device, as well as capture messages as they come in. It can provide live monitoring of call activity, take pictures with the phone’s camera, and stream audio from the phone’s microphone back to its server. It can also post “toasts” (application messages) on the screen, place phone calls, send text messages, and open websites in the phone’s browser. If it is launched as an application (or “activity”), it can even stream video from the camera back to the server.

Hackers have taken Androrat’s code and run with it. Recently, underground marketplaces for malware have begun to offer Androrat “binder” tools, which can attach the RAT to the APK files of other legitimate applications. When a user downloads what appears to be a harmless app that has been bound to Androrat, the RAT gets installed along with the app without requiring additional user input, sneaking past Android’s security model. Symantec reports that analysts have found 23 instances of legitimate apps that have been turned into carriers for Androrat. The code has also been incorporated into other “commercial” malware, such as Adwind—a Java-based RAT that can be used against multiple operating systems.

Lelli said that Symantec has detected “several hundred” cases of Androrat-based malware infections on Android devices, mostly in the US and Turkey. But now that binders are available to anyone willing to pay for them, the potential for infection to spread is growing rapidly. (more)

*Spybusters Countermeasure: Android app SpyWarn detects RAT spyware activity. (http://tinyurl.com/SpyWarnApp)

New Jersey Supreme Court Restricts Police Searches of Phone Data

Staking out new ground in the noisy debate about technology and privacy in law enforcement, the New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that the police will now have to get a search warrant before obtaining tracking information from cellphone providers.

The ruling puts the state at the forefront of efforts to define the boundaries around a law enforcement practice that a national survey last year showed was routine, and typically done without court oversight or public awareness. With lower courts divided on the use of cellphone tracking data, legal experts say, the issue is likely to end up before the United States Supreme Court. (more)

If You Think The NSA Is Bad, Wait To You See South Korea’s Surveillance State

SEOUL, South Korea — Americans are apparently blasé about government eavesdropping.

In the days after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that Washington spies extensively on its own citizens, polls found that about half of Americans have no problem with such snooping, as long as it protects them from terrorism.

But a scandal unfolding here in South Korea illustrates how such domestic snooping can easily harm a democracy. The imbroglio has sparked student protests and candlelight vigils around Seoul... (more)

NSA Leak Highlights the Power of Spying - Irish Eyes Aren't Smiling

Ireland - Entrepreneurs are worried. Not because they have something to hide from US authorities, but for fear of breaking contractual liability. 

"I'm currently setting up two businesses here," said Jude Braden, who employs 12 people in Dublin-based data-related businesses. "My problem is that under Irish and EU law, I have a duty to protect the data of my clients. I can potentially be sued if my clients' data gets out into the public domain. But the events of recent weeks and months puts me in a position where I may not be able to fulfill the terms of that obligation."
 Espionage and industrial skullduggery have long been connected, said Conor Flynn, founder of Isas, a Dublin- IT security firm... "There has always been suspicions among American industrialists when they travel to China that they would be monitored for espionage purposes.

Dublin-based IT security expert Brian Honan agrees. "You don't bug German embassy offices if you're looking for Al-Qai'da," said Honan. "When the US plants bugs in EU embassies it is clearly targeted at trade talks and industrial interests."

Conor and Brian are correct. Industrial skullduggery, and bugging, are key espionage tactics – and, they are not the tools of governments alone. Tried and true spy methods still work in the business world.  (more)

Bremont Codebreaker Crypto Watch Turns Position of Earth into a Usable Measurement

The Bremont Codebreaker is a limited edition chronograph that uses original artifacts from the famous cryptographic facility to commemorate British code breaking efforts during the Second World War.

Bletchley Park was one of the best kept secrets of the Second World War and remained so for decades after until the story was made public in 1974. The ancient estate with its Victorian mansion was the headquarters for the Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS), where 9,000 scientists, mathematicians and others were tasked with decrypting enemy ciphers from the German Enigma and Lorenz machines. It was where Alan Turing laid the foundations for modern computer science and artificial intelligence and was the birthplace of Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic computer.

The efforts of the team at Bletchley Park were perhaps the greatest single strategic advantage of the Allies and may have shortened the war by two years. The Codebreaker is meant to not only act as a commemoration piece, but also a physical container of some of that story. According to Bremont, the Codebreaker was Inspired by a classic 1940’s officers watch and that 240 steel Codebreaker watches will be created along with 50 rose gold watches. Each numbered watch has a flyback Chronograph GMT automatic movement and is made from materials directly related to the code breaking efforts. (more)

Keeping the NSA in Perspective

by George Friedman, Stratfor

In June 1942, the bulk of the Japanese fleet sailed to seize the Island of Midway. Had Midway fallen, Pearl Harbor would have been at risk and U.S. submarines, unable to refuel at Midway, would have been much less effective. Most of all, the Japanese wanted to surprise the Americans and draw them into a naval battle they couldn't win.

The Japanese fleet was vast. The Americans had two carriers intact in addition to one that was badly damaged. The United States had only one advantage: It had broken Japan's naval code and thus knew a great deal of the country's battle plan. In large part because of this cryptologic advantage, a handful of American ships devastated the Japanese fleet and changed the balance of power in the Pacific permanently. (more)
 
George Friedman is the Chairman of Stratfor, a company he founded in 1996 that is now a leader in the field of global intelligence.

Hackers Turn Verizon Box into Spy Tool

Researchers at iSec hacked into a Verizon network extender, which anyone can buy online, and turned it into a cell phone tower small enough to fit inside a backpack capable of capturing and intercepting all calls, text messages and data sent by mobile devices within range...

"The level of technical skill that you need to break into one of these, people are learning college. 

A malicious person could put one of these, with a battery, in a backpack, and go downtown - to a place like Times Square or Wall Street...

Frankly, these devices scare us. It is not the NSA tapping ordinary people. It is about ordinary people attacking ordinary people." (more)

Note: Verizon says they fixed this particular issue.

Warning: Femtocells in general, however, offer a new playground to hackers and criminals alike. Cut back on your confidential transmissions in densely populated areas.

Attack of the Cyber Mercenaries

A British intelligence report says that other nations are hiring hackers to launch attacks against their enemies, a trend it described as particularly worrying.

Have board, will travel. ~K3y5LingR

The warning over cyber mercenaries came in an annual report published by Britain's Intelligence and Security Committee, a watchdog body of senior lawmakers that oversees Britain's spy agencies. (more)