Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories

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…

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.

Related Topics

Collections:

Tagged as:

Latest Episodes

View All Shows
  • Marketplace Morning Report
    8 minutes ago
    7:04
  • Marketplace Tech
    2 hours ago
    11:03
  • Marketplace
    14 hours ago
    25:19
  • Make Me Smart
    19 hours ago
    19:00
  • This Is Uncomfortable
    3 days ago
    56:05
  • Million Bazillion
    24 days ago
    32:45