ShortRead: A group of researchers have developed a system which can hack and steal data from any smartphone user.
Today, one of the most troubling issues for smartphone users is its privacy and that points to the apps and websites they visit from the smartphone.
Almost all websites and apps gather user’s data to get make money by using the data themselves or by selling it on to advertisers.
Though, the market for the data buyer is not only limited to internet market. It also involves law enforcement and even government officials. However, there is a company which claims to have developed an intelligence system with the ability to steal data from the smartphone of any user.
A system that can steal anything
Now with so much to offer for this data, an Israeli group “Rayzone” has developed a system known as “InterApp” which can steal intimate information of any phone user, which is in the system’s proximity. The collected data includes user email address and password, contact list, Dropbox, operating system of the phone, photos, Internet history browsing, locations and a lot more.
According to the system’s website it can collect “intimate information of any phone user… in the system’s proximity.”
What’s most troubling is that the system does not require much to attack a phone, just a phone user with wifi enabled on the device is enough:
“INTERAPP IS FULLY TRANSPARENT TO THE TARGET AND DOES NOT REQUIRE ANY COOPERATION FROM THE PHONE OWNER,” “THE ONLY REQUIRED CONDITION IS THAT THE WIFI TRANSMITTER OF THE MOBILE DEVICE WILL BE OPEN (NO NEED TO SURF THE WEB).”
Can be used by anyone
For anyone who wants to use the system, they just need little technical training and then can run the system on its own. But, that doesn’t mean it’s been developed for spammers or hackers rather it serves as part of a wider strategic system, installed in a variety of points of interest with large geographical coverage with one analysis and control center. (Safe city / airports / etc.).”This system was also put into practice in the recent Paris attacks from tracking down the ISIS members.
Not given green flags yet
But it’s unclear if this system will live up to expectation because many security experts haven’t given it the green light yet. Claudio Guarnieri, a security researcher told Motherboard that,
“Either they collect data from apps that leak it in clear, or they compromise the device, but it doesn’t sound like . “In many cases when we get to learn more, it turns out they’re not as good as advertised. The power of this system relies on how credible the vulnerabilities they claim they have been.”
Something fishy…
One of the trickiest parts of this system is that the group has kept the functions of the system hidden. When Motherboard emailed Ron Zika from Rayzone he said the system is only for government use and can’t be disclosed to any journalist.
Similarly, when International Business Times UK tried to contact the group via the main number only to find it was disconnected and their Facebook was either disabled or made private. Their website and twitter page are however still up but the group is in no mood to disclose the features of the server.
Hopefully, the system’s features are all hype but just in case the system really does work as claimed by the group there will be major privacy breaches in future.