The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) is warning BlackBerry users about a spyware program that allows attackers to turn a target’s handset into a microphone that can be accessed remotely. PhoneSnoop is a free, remote spying application designed for BlackBerry phones. The app works by intercepting phone calls from a predetermined ‘trigger’ number. When PhoneSnoop detects an incoming call from that number, it accepts the call and turns on the BlackBerry’s speaker phone, effectively allowing the caller to listen in on the target’s surroundings.
In this video you will find some examples of the spyware used to hack and listen into mobile phones
There are some very real limitations of this spying app: For starters, an attacker would need to have physical access to the victim’s phone in order to install the app. PhoneSnoop also can’t listen in on the victim’s phone calls, and it leaves a conspicuous new program icon in the victim’s app list. Still, the alert serves as a useful reminder on the importance of maintaining proper physical security around the communications devices most of us depend upon.
PhoneSnoop isn’t exactly new or feature-rich, but it is free. Applications like Flexispy and Mobile Spy can be used to intercept and relay a user’s text messages, phone call logs and even GPS coordinates. Still, these other apps can cost between $250 to $300.
My grand mother called me about this stuff when I said something about not knowing what my boyfriend was up to. She saw it on the news and just had to call and tell me all about it. Don’t you think all the media is going to make this a larger problem, I mean I looked it up because I thought it was nutz and there are tons of sites that offer it and prob. millions that don’t realize how illegal it actually is. This is nutz if you don’t trust a person than there is no need to be with a person.. Cant the mobil phone companies find a way to make this impossible?