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)