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New demonstration of SMS hacking shows smartphones vulnerable to attackAirwide Comments on smartphone security threat
BURLINGTON, Mass. – July 30, 2009 – At this week’s Black Hat Cybersecurity Conference in Las Vegas – and as reported by Andy Greenwood at Forbes and Robert McMillan of IDG – researchers will today demonstrate how they can potentially ‘hijack every iPhone in the World’ using falsified SMS and MMS messages. The messages, which threaten iPhones, Windows devices and other smartphones, can give a hacker complete power over any of the devices’ functions, including dialing the phone, visiting Web sites, turning on the device's camera and microphone and sending further messages to enable the hijacking of a massive network of smartphones. This is the latest in a string of recent, high profile mobile security scares that demonstrate the vulnerability of high-end smartphones to malicious attacks that endanger users’ private data. Indeed in another similar announcement yesterday research showed that nearly one out of every 63 smartphones powered by the Symbian operating system is infected with some form of malware. Jay Seaton, Chief Marketing Officer at mobile messaging specialists, Airwide Solutions, believes that the most effective solutions to combat attacks of this nature are those deployed by mobile operators. “The data being carried by smartphones is increasingly making them more valuable than many computers – and this is putting smartphones at tremendous risk to security threats. SMS and MMS messages are the easiest way for hackers to reach and infiltrate a device, and it falls to operators to employ mobile security solutions to protect their customers from this danger. Many people assume that the PC security model of software downloads and firewalls are the answer. However, with the variety of handsets available this alone isn’t an effective option. Adding to the complexity is the range of communication methods that can be carried out on a smartphone - email, SMS, MMS, web and WAP access - and along with them come a host of mobile security threats such as mobile spam, viruses and phishing. Handset based solutions are also limited as they only protect a tiny percent of mobile users. Also, with mobile devices constantly being upgraded and replaced with higher specification devices, security software is often quickly outdated. The most effective answer lies with an integrated approach including subscriber education about malicious threats, as well as both handset and network-based solutions. However, of these approaches the most effective and comprehensive are solutions deployed across the network as they are both more controllable and easily upgraded to remain current. Today many network operators voluntarily police potential fraudsters but as messaging services continue to grow and become more complex, networks need a comprehensive range of features such as anti-spam and virus filtering software, Equipment Identity Register systems and blacklisting, anti-spoofing and anti-flooding technology. Using a variety of mobile security technologies operators can detect abnormal patterns in messaging traffic, confirm legitimate senders, filter content and block suspicious messages."
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