The in force Defense Department against any of your gadgets becoming flood with malware has always been personal vigilance . “ Hmm , this app looks sketchy and is from a third - party app store I ’ve never heard of . NOPE ! ” But a unexampled vulnerability , discovered by surety expert at Zimperium , can attack your phone with just a text .
According to Zimperium research worker Joshua Drakevia NPR , here ’s how this shivery bit of malicious hacking happen :
The bad guy wire creates a shortsighted video , hide the malware inside it and texts it to your act . As soon as it ’s receive by the speech sound , Drake says , “ it does its initial processing , which trigger off the vulnerability .
The material culprit here is our endless thirstiness for convenience and Hangouts , Google ’s SMS alternative . Because Hangouts automatically work on video so it ’s ready in your art gallery , the malicious code enters your phone without you even tick on the text . So essentially , you receive one malicious text and your smartphone twist against you .
Zimperium says Google ’s done a respectable job implementing fixes over the last few month , but this scenario is why Android ’s open ecosystem can be more of a curse than a blessing . Even if patches this lapse in security , that ’s only going to pass so many people . According to Drake , that ’s only 20 per centum . Others will have to take with the annoying shitstorm that is wait for updates through manufacturers and toter .
If you ’re really worried about your smartphone being a tick off time bomb quick to explode at the whim of some hacker , cease using hangout . Most other texting apps wo n’t now download a picture until you reach the textual matter . So it ’s still risky , but at least you may see an strange number and delete without worry . The only good news from all of this is that the use of this exposure has n’t been seen out in the wild yet , so here ’s hope that 950 million Android phones can get patch before this becomes a serious problem .
For almost a decade , not being a dumb , gullible , cyberspace idiot was enough to economize you from most nasty software out there , but now it can be hand over right to your digital doorsill — and there is n’t much you could do about it .
[ NPR ]
pic by Michael Hession
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