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("Security Advisory")
Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master
NRT-0451 Growth in Mobile Spying Programs:
Spying programs for mobile phones are likely to grow in sophistication and stealth as the
business of selling spying tools grows, according to a mobile analyst at the Black Hat
Conference on Friday, 28MAR. Many of the spy programs on the market are powerful, but are
not very sophisticatedly coded, said a senior antivirus researcher at Finnish security vendor
F-secure. But, he said, there is increasing evidence that money from selling the tools will
create a stronger incentive for more accomplished programmers to get into the game, which
would make the programs harder to detect. His prediction follows what has happened with the
malware writers in the PC market. Many hackers are now in the business of selling easy-to-use
tools to less technical hackers rather than hacking into PCs themselves. One of the latest
tools on the market is Mobile SpySuite, which the researcher believes is the first spy tool
generator for mobiles. It sells for $12,500 and enables a hacker to custom-build a spy tool
aimed at several models of Mokia phones. The number of mobile spyware programs pales in
comparison to the number of such programs available for PCs. However, mobile spying programs
are harder to track, since security companies such as F-Secure don't see as many samples
circulating on the internet as they do of malicious software for PCs. However, anecdotal
evidence has emerged that enterprises may be increasingly encountering mobile spyware on
their fleets of phones. The clues have come from companies that are relatively cagey when
talking about what they have seen. He said there have been certain cases of corporate
customers asking very detailed questions about spy tools and not mentioning why they need
the information.
(IDG News Service 28MAR08)