Spy Any Phone Via Hardware Hack With AudioJack Malware

The researcher Atul Alex has presented at last edition of International Malware Conference (MalCon) how it is possible to attack every mobile devices with a special hardware designed using common electronic components.
Atul Alex presented a paper that covers “abusing voice dialing and combining Arduino / Microcontroller to steal private data on iphone, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry using only the Audio jack.

Mobile devices are sophisticated devices that manage a huge quantity user’s information and their exploit could open the door to a mine of sensible data, due this reason the expert provides that in incoming months defense system will be reinforced and it will be more  difficult in the future software based attacks.
It must be considered that an efficient attack on large scale against mobile world have to be able to infect multi platform devices.

During its presentation Atul Alex explained how to transform any mobile device into a spy tool, avoiding the installation of any malicious software on it, abusing voice dialing feature which is enabled by default on all mobile platforms.

Modern devices are equipped with powerful software able to interpret user’s vocal commands, the hardware device proposed by Alex Atul is able to mimic them to give orders to the device. The functionality opens future scenarios in which hackers are able to control phone simply sending unauthorized text messages to steal sensible data.
Almost all events on the mobile are notified to the user with the help of corresponding tones/sounds, the researched has demonstrated that adding a microcontroller to the headset’s circuit is possible to:

• Initiate phone calls without user interaction.
• Note duration of phone calls.
• Detect incoming/outgoing calls,  sms & so on.

In the future versions the hardware could also integrate more complex functionalities such as recording of phone calls or remote activation of the device.
For sure similar devices will represent in the future a privileged option for cyber espionage operations and more in general for cyber operations. Many governments are working or financing projects for development of new cyber tools. Government agencies have massively invested in programs to “violate” citizen’s privacy in the name of national security, world is changed from 11/9 and the risk of a new dramatic cyber attack is high.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is one of the most advanced agency in this sense, it is responsible for the development of new technologies for use by the military and recently it has proposed a device called the Power Pwn designed by Pwnie Express company that apparently look like a surge protector, but it’s a powerful tool to infiltrate networks allowing remote access to every  machine.

How to defend our device from similar attacks? In the future every interface of mobile device have to be properly designed, every input must be validated by a specially designed circuitry.
Another factor to consider as critical is the qualification of hardware for devices similar to the one described in the research , different compromised components may invade the consumer market with disastrous consequences, it is necessary a great effort to avoid dangerous incidents.

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Synthetic Police by DARPA Engineering Autonomous Robots Ready To Rescue

Because of the risks involved in rescue aid workers and human response teams, DARPA awarded Boston Dynamics, Inc. a $10.9 million contract to manufacture humanoid robots that are bi-pedal, built like humans and have a sensor head with on-board computing capabilities. Completion of the project is expected for August of 2014.

These robots are being created to assist in excavation and rescue missions, according to DARPA . They could also be employed to evacuation operations during either man-made or natural disasters.

Another of DARPA’s interests into robotics is the Avatar for the allocation of bi-pedal robots and essential super-soldiers and has devoted $7 million of its $2.8 billion 2012 budget to developing “interfaces and algorithms to enable a soldier to effectively partner with a semi-autonomous bi-pedal machine and allow it to act as the soldier’s surrogate.”

These human-controlled robots will be strong enough to “clear a room” and “facilitate sentry control and combat causality recovery.” Yet these “terminators” would easily be the most effective weapon against civil unrest or radical revolutionaries that did not subscribe to the globalist agenda.

Stanford University’s Aerospace Robotics Laboratory (ARL) wants to introduce autonomous robots into law enforcement situations; such as response in lieu of police SWAT teams.

In high-risk tactical situations, autonomous robots could replace trained personnel without threat of injury or loss of life. Under the direction of a tactical commander, those robots could be released to provide safe and secure assurance of mission completion. Possible voice recognition software could be used to allow the commander to direct the robot, convey commands, and gather information about the environment before deploying human law enforcement.

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