Your smartphone can be part of a botnet

Botnets are big networks of zombie computers – when your computer has been infected with some kind of malware that will allow someone to take control of your computer’s processing power without your knowledge. Now, a researcher, Georgia Weidman, has created software that does that to your mobile phone, and she’ll present her work at the Shmoocon conference later this month in D.C.

From MIT’s Technology Review:

Weidman’s attack works like this: After infecting a phone with a low-level program known as a rootkit, she uses that phone to send spam text messages, participate in a denial-of-service, or degrade the communications of the phone–all without the user knowing. The techniques apply to any smart phone, Weidman says, but she will use three different Android phones for her demo.