Femtocell hackers from iSEC hear, see smartphone content
(Phys.org) —While all thoughts are on how government agencies can abuse surveillance technologies to ruin people's lives, an unassuming group of backyard neighbors in summer clogs and shorts can leisurely lean back in their chairs and snoop to read an SMS that a victim has just sent from her smartphone, listen in on her phone calls, and see all the pictures she is sending off by intercepting the data connection. Better still, they can plant themselves in the financial district and snoop on people talking about accounts, business mergers, or anything else ripe for exploit. Welcome to iSEC's kind of exploit, the talk of the security crowd this week and no doubt the talk of companies that depend on red flags for potential security holes. The security consultants, iSEC Partners Tom Ritter and Doug DePerry, managed to hack a Verizon Wireless device and turn it into a mobile spy. "This...