More virus woes

[Suff]

Most people's phones are hacked by wide open Bluetooth. Wifi is not so easy. Very few people actually secure their Bluetooth which is why most phone's no longer allow a constant open Bluetooth but force you to temporarily enable it.

Why on the train? Because you get a long uninterrupted chance to attack the phone. Most bus journeys are shorter and people on the street are out of range before you really get to attacking them.

A properly secured phone with security software on it should not be at risk.... It is enlightening to switch your Bluetooth on in a public place and see how many devices are wide open and transmitting.....

[Workingman]

Why on the train? Because you get a long uninterrupted chance to attack the phone.

But that is also the case in cafes and at home, and many other places. Making out that trains are the dangerous places makes people think that everywhere else is secure.

It is one reason that I so hate these urban myths.

[Suff]

This is true. The reality is that you are not secure unless you make yourself secure. That should be the message. But there are places of higher risk.

[Workingman]

Talking of code and eavesdropping.....

It has been revealed that the US (NSA) and the UK (GCHQ) hacked into a Dutch company making SIM cards for smartphones - 30% of the global market. This allowed (allows) them to monitor voice and data communications without the user being aware.

[Suff]

Yep, saw that. I used to be secure with Skype on the mobile (which I use for much of my calling anyway), for Skype to Skype, but now that MS owns Skype, the NSA will certainly have that code and the keys....

However there is one good thing which comes from this. They would never have attempted that hack if they could real time brute force current mobile phone encryption. No doubt they can do it offline, but if they can real time it then they only need to keep what they want.

What it means to me is that if you don't use one of these sim cards, then you are going to already have to be on their list for your mobile comms to be monitored.

What should have been listed was a full list of all customers of the Sim cards and then a general recall and re-issue with new keys. If they don't then users should be shouting loud and clear.

Then the sim company needs to get better security technology and better spam/virus protection. The last time I worked directly with the SPAM system of a reasonably large world wide company (45,000 users), their anti virus/spam system was filtering 1.5Billion unwanted mails a month. Nobody can deal with that level of rubbish unless technology helps.