iPhone can be used as spy phone to get desktop Keystrokes

[Donnachaidh]

http://thehackernews.com/2011/10/iphone-can-be-used-as-spy-phone-to-get.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheHackersNews+%28The+Hackers+News+-+Daily+Cyber+News+Updates%29

What if a hacker could log every key you typed on your PC by placing a cellphone nearby? US researchers have shown how this is possible using any smartphone available today.


At a conference in Chicago on Thursday, a group of computer researchers from Georgia Tech​ will report on another potential threat. The researchers have shown that the accelerometer and orientation sensor of a phone resting on a surface can be used to eavesdrop as a password is entered using a keyboard on the same surface. They were able to capture the words typed on the keyboard with as much as 80 percent

:snippage:

"We first tried our experiments with an iPhone 3GS, and the results were difficult to read," said Patrick Traynor of Georgia Tech. "But then we tried an iPhone 4, which has an added gyroscope to clean up the accelerometer noise, and the results were much better. We believe that most smartphones made in the last two years are sophisticated enough to do this attack."

:snippage:

"The way we see this attack working is that you, the phone's owner, would request or be asked to download an innocuous-looking application, which doesn't ask you for the use of any suspicious phone sensors," said Henry Carter, one of the study's co-authors . "Then the keyboarddetection malware is turned on, and the next time you place your phone next to the keyboard , it starts listening."

More at the link --

[Scuba]

1. Each phone comes complete with George Orwell poster!