[ISN] BlackBerry has spyware risk too, researcher says

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10448545-245.html

By Elinor Mills
InSecurity Complex 
CNET News
February 7, 2010

We've heard a lot about security issues with the iPhone, but the 
BlackBerry isn't immune to threats from malicious apps.

Tyler Shields, a senior researcher at the Veracode Research Lab, has 
written a piece of spyware that allowed me to shoot an SMS command to 
his phone and have his contact list forwarded to my e-mail address in a 
demonstration. With another short text command, I was able to get his 
BlackBerry to e-mail me any SMS messages he sends.

And if I had wanted--and he had allowed me--I could have seen a log of 
all his calls, monitored his inbound text messages, tracked his location 
in real-time based on the GPS (Global Positioning System) in his device 
and turned his microphone on to listen to conversations in the room and 
record them.

"It's trivial to write this type of code using the mobile provider's own 
API [application programming interface] they provide to any developer," 
Shields said in an interview in advance of his talk on the spyware 
scheduled for the ShmooCon security show on Sunday.

[...]


________________________________________ 
Did a friend send you this? From now on, be the 
first to find out! Subscribe to InfoSec News 
http://www.infosecnews.org