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Cornered! is a blog devoted, most of the time anyway, to telecommunications: local and global issues, technology, people and trends from the perspective of someone who's been reporting, analysing and commenting on the industry since the dark ages (BC - before competition). Sometimes serious, sometimes flippant, sometimes frivolous. Controversial, analytical, informative, amusing, but never boring; a vehicle for examinations of important issues and observations on my encounters and experiences in an industry where polarised views and hyperbole are the norm.
First serious threat to cellphone security? - no it's not PDF Print E-mail
Written by Stuart Corner   
Friday, 17 November 2006
German security company, SecurStar, claims to have uncovered the first serious threat to the security of cellphone conversations, but the reality is that these compromised long ago. (Note a folllow on item in which SecurStar has responded to issues raised is available here .
In a press release the company said: "The unthinkable has occurred: No mobile communications between people are transferred over a wire line (sic), and no more SMS messages can be sent without potentially being recorded by third parties, competitors or spouses."

SecurStar claims that "Simply by sending an invisible and unnoticeable SMS message to a particular cellphone, spying on cell phone users has become child's play."

It claims that its CEO, Wilfried Hafner has developed a Trojan horse, named RexSpy, solely for demonstration purposes. "The results are alarming. When the Trojan invades the system, the security vulnerabilities discovered by Hafner show the possibility of eavesdropping on any cellphone."

According to SecurStar's press release "Hafner has kicked up a storm during the security exposition "Systems" in Munich by demonstrating the discovered vulnerability and the real danger threatening cell phone users today. Using an undetectable SMS message, completely invisible to the operating system, everything is over in a matter of seconds: the SMS sender can spy on the cell phone user around the clock, as long as the cell phone is in use. All SMS messages can be read and all conversations can be listened to."

SecurStar even claims that "The surrounding areas can be monitored via the infected cellular phone. The Trojan can also access and forward complete address books." And it claims that "any programmer can develop a similar Trojan horse application without any great investment of time or effort," adding that "If anyone were to circulate such a malicious virus, it would have devastating consequences."

 
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