Derek Brown and Dany Tijerina of computer security firm TippingPoint, have managed to convince just under 8000 smartphone users to download and install an app called WeatherFist, which, as you’d expect, is a weather forecast app. But, it’s not just giving it’s users weather forecasts, it’s also been uploading their GPS coordinates and telephone numbers to a TippingPoint server.
The app was put together as a proof of concept botnet as part of a presentation at last week’s RSA Conference. Brown and Tijerina claim that it would be a simple matter to have the application steal even more details, including passwords and even stored files from the phone. Over 90 per cent of WeatherFist downloads were to Android phones, which has yet again prompted the security of apps on the Android Market to be brought in to question: “The average user is not tech-savvy enough to police the apps they put on their phone,” says Brown.
{via The Register and New Scientist}
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Boffins create proof of concept “botnet” from infected iPhones and Android handsets
