Spam News

Spam messages offer phony cell phone spyware

Friday, August 7, 2009

Some spammers are using the temptation to spy on someone else through their cell phone to sell phony spyware, according to IT security firm Symantec.

Spam email captured in Symantec's spam filters included an example of an offer for a "revolutionary surveillance solution for mobile phones," according to the company's July state of spam report.

But recipients should be wary - the message tells recipients they must first install the so-called "unique MMS phone interceptor loader" on their phone and then execute. This is a potentially dangerous step towards installing malware, the report said.

With text message spam proliferating, security researchers are warning that hackers may use this kind of offer to turn a user's smartphone into part of a phone botnet, that could spy on the owner or send out spam to other phones.

Security expert Charlie Miller exposed a flaw in smartphones at the Black Hat 2009 hacker conference that could allow an attacker to use text messages to remotely execute malicious code or hijack the device.

He said hackers could theoretically exploit the vulnerability to monitor the location of the phone using GPS, turn on the phone's microphone to eavesdrop on conversations.