BEER-SHEVA, Israel – When mobile phone users crack a touchscreen, often they will buy a new one online, or at a local repair shop, rather than from the company that originally built the phone. By doing so, they open the door to hackers who sell compromised screens that let them take control of a users smart phone.
This hardware-based hack was demonstrated recently by researchers at the Innovation lab of Deutsche Telekom at the Ben-Gurion University in the Israeli desert city of Beer Sheva. The demonstration was performed by Doctoral candidate Omer Shwartz, who using replacement parts, builds a new screen for a damaged smartphone.
Unfortunately, Shwartz said, the replacements have come from an unknown origin. The user and the repair company did not discover, until it was too late, that malware had been inserted by a black hat hacker creating a back door for cyberattack.
“If the attackers are inside the backdoor, they can do everything with the smartphones,” Shwartz said. “Passwords are searched, self-made by the user and even videos of his environment, without the smartphone owner noticing it.”
Cyber security researchers at Ben-Gurion University in August developed an innovative firewall program that adds a missing layer of security in Android cellphones and monitors for malicious code. Read the report at https://mitechnews.com/cyber-defense/israeli-telecom-researchers-develop-firewall-protect-android-hacks/.
While Smartphone hacks are a minor threat, they are a threat that strikes home for anyone who uses one of these mobile mini computers, particularly for iPhone users since firewall protection has not yet been developed.
The lesson learned in this demonstration is make sure if you crack your smartphone’s touchscreen, only original parts are installed – or all your personal information could be at risk.
