• About us
  • Community
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
Thursday, August 11, 2022
  • Login
Dubai News TV - Dubai News
  • Home
  • UAE
    • Dubai
    • Sharjah
    • Abu Dhabi
    • Ajman
    • Ras Al Khaimah
    • Fujairah
    • Umm Al Quwain
  • REGION
    • Asia
    • South Asia
      • Pakistan
      • India
      • Bangladesh
      • Afghanistan
    • Middle East
    • GCC
    • MENA
    • Europe
    • Africa
  • Business
    • Global Business
    • Local Business
    • Markets
  • REAL ESTATE
  • Expo 2020
  • Meet The CEO
  • Horoscope
  • PR
  • more
    • Opinion
    • EDITOR’S CHOICE
    • The Big Read
    • Viewpoint
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • UAE
    • Dubai
    • Sharjah
    • Abu Dhabi
    • Ajman
    • Ras Al Khaimah
    • Fujairah
    • Umm Al Quwain
  • REGION
    • Asia
    • South Asia
      • Pakistan
      • India
      • Bangladesh
      • Afghanistan
    • Middle East
    • GCC
    • MENA
    • Europe
    • Africa
  • Business
    • Global Business
    • Local Business
    • Markets
  • REAL ESTATE
  • Expo 2020
  • Meet The CEO
  • Horoscope
  • PR
  • more
    • Opinion
    • EDITOR’S CHOICE
    • The Big Read
    • Viewpoint
No Result
View All Result
Dubai News
  • Top News
  • UAE
  • REGION
  • Business
  • World
  • REAL ESTATE
  • Entertainment
  • ENVIRONMENT
  • Expo 2020
  • FEATURED
  • Horoscope
  • Meet The CEO
  • Road To Financial Freedom
  • Opinion
  • PR
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • Video Posts
Home NEWS

Turn off, turn on: Simple step can thwart top phone hackers

by Dubai News
July 28, 2021
in NEWS, Top News
Reading Time: 12 mins read
146 4
A A
800
2.1k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — As a member of the secretive Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Angus King has reason to worry about hackers. At a briefing by security staff this year, he said he got some advice on how to help keep his cellphone secure.

Step One: Turn off phone.

RelatedPosts

Inside Saudi Arabia’s Plan to Build a Skyscraper That Stretches for 75 Miles

U.S. Blacklists Ex-Paraguayan President Due to Alleged Corruption, Terrorism Ties

Shrouded in secrecy for years, Russia’s Wagner Group opens up

Step Two: Turn it back on.

That’s it. At a time of widespread digital insecurity it turns out that the oldest and simplest computer fix there is — turning a device off then back on again — can thwart hackers from stealing information from smartphones.

Regularly rebooting phones won’t stop the army of cybercriminals or spy-for-hire firms that have sowed chaos and doubt about the ability to keep any information safe and private in our digital lives. But it can make even the most sophisticated hackers work harder to maintain access and steal data from a phone.

“This is all about imposing cost on these malicious actors,” said Neal Ziring, technical director of the National Security Agency’s cybersecurity directorate.

ADVERTISEMENT

The NSA issued a “best practices” guide for mobile device security last year in which it recommends rebooting a phone every week as a way to stop hacking.

King, an independent from Maine, says rebooting his phone is now part of his routine.

“I’d say probably once a week, whenever I think of it,” he said.

Almost always in arm’s reach, rarely turned off and holding huge stores of personal and sensitive data, cellphones have become top targets for hackers looking to steal text messages, contacts and photos, as well as track users’ locations and even secretly turn on their video and microphones.

“I always think of phones as like our digital soul,” said Patrick Wardle, a security expert and former NSA researcher.

The number of people whose phones are hacked each year is unknowable, but evidence suggests it’s significant. A recent investigation into phone hacking by a global media consortium has caused political uproars in France, India, Hungary and elsewhere after researchers found scores of journalists, human rights activists and politicians on a leaked list of what were believed to be potential targets of an Israeli hacker-for-hire company.

The advice to periodically reboot a phone reflects, in part, a change in how top hackers are gaining access to mobile devices and the rise of so-called “zero-click” exploits that work without any user interaction instead of trying to get users to open something that’s secretly infected.

“There’s been this evolution away from having a target click on a dodgy link,” said Bill Marczak, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, an internet civil rights watchdog at the University of Toronto.

ADVERTISEMENT

Typically, once hackers gain access to a device or network, they look for ways to persist in the system by installing malicious software to a computer’s root file system. But that’s become more difficult as phone manufacturers such as Apple and Google have strong security to block malware from core operating systems, Ziring said.

“It’s very difficult for an attacker to burrow into that layer in order to gain persistence,” he said.

That encourages hackers to opt for “in-memory payloads” that are harder to detect and trace back to whoever sent them. Such hacks can’t survive a reboot, but often don’t need to since many people rarely turn their phones off.

“Adversaries came to the realization they don’t need to persist,” Wardle said. “If they could do a one-time pull and exfiltrate all your chat messages and your contact and your passwords, it’s almost game over anyways, right?”

A robust market currently exists for hacking tools that can break into phones. Some companies like Zerodium and Crowdfence publicly offer millions of dollars for zero-click exploits.

And hacker-for-hire companies that sell mobile-device hacking services to governments and law enforcement agencies have proliferated in recent years. The most well known is the Israeli-based NSO Group, whose spyware researchers say has been used around the world to break into the phones of human rights activists, journalists, and even members of the Catholic clergy.

NSO Group is the focus of the recent exposés by a media consortium that reported the company’s spyware tool Pegasus was used in 37 instances of successful or attempted phone hacks of business executives, human rights activists and others, according to The Washington Post.

The company is also being sued in the U.S. by Facebook for allegedly targeting some 1,400 users of its encrypted messaging service WhatsApp with a zero-click exploit.

NSO Group has said it only sells its spyware to “vetted government agencies” for use against terrorists and major criminals. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

The persistence of NSO’s spyware used to be a selling point of the company. Several years ago its U.S.-based subsidy pitched law enforcement agencies a phone-hacking tool that would survive even a factory reset of a phone, according to documents obtained by Vice News.

But Marczak, who has tracked NSO Group’s activists closely for years, said it looks like the company first starting using zero-click exploits that forgo persistence around 2019.

He said victims in the WhatsApp case would see an incoming call for a few rings before the spyware was installed. In 2020, Marczak and Citizen Lab exposed another zero-click hack attributed to NSO Group that targeted several journalists at Al Jazeera. In that case, the hackers used Apple’s iMessage texting service.

“There was nothing that any of the targets reported seeing on their screen. So that one was both completely invisible as well as not requiring any user interaction,” Marczak said.

With such a powerful tool at their disposal, Marczak said rebooting your phone won’t do much to stop determined hackers. Once you reboot, they could simply send another zero-click.

“It’s sort of just a different model, it’s persistence through reinfection,” he said.

The NSA’s guide also acknowledges that rebooting a phone works only sometimes. The agency’s guide for mobile devices has an even simpler piece of advice to really make sure hackers aren’t secretly turning on your phone’s camera or microphone to record you: don’t carry it with you.

Tags: Dubai latest newsDubai News
Share8Tweet5Share1Send

Get real time update about this post categories directly on your device, subscribe now.

Unsubscribe
">
ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

Inside Saudi Arabia’s Plan to Build a Skyscraper That Stretches for 75 Miles
NEWS

Inside Saudi Arabia’s Plan to Build a Skyscraper That Stretches for 75 Miles

August 11, 2022
2.1k
U.S. Blacklists Ex-Paraguayan President Due to Alleged Corruption, Terrorism Ties
NEWS

U.S. Blacklists Ex-Paraguayan President Due to Alleged Corruption, Terrorism Ties

August 11, 2022
2.2k
Shrouded in secrecy for years, Russia’s Wagner Group opens up
NEWS

Shrouded in secrecy for years, Russia’s Wagner Group opens up

August 11, 2022
2.2k
Abortion opponents, election deniers: US midterm races take shape
NEWS

Abortion opponents, election deniers: US midterm races take shape

August 11, 2022
2.2k
Thousands evacuated from France’s Gironde as forest fires rage
NEWS

Thousands evacuated from France’s Gironde as forest fires rage

August 11, 2022
2.1k
Gaza mourns the 16 children killed in Israel’s latest assault
NEWS

Gaza mourns the 16 children killed in Israel’s latest assault

August 11, 2022
2.2k

Popular News

  • zoom property

    Etihad Rail set to accelerate growth in UAE’s property market

    21 shares
    Share 23 Tweet 15
  • Palm Jumeirah, Downtown Dubai most popular areas as per square feet price increase

    27 shares
    Share 67 Tweet 42
  • Dubai property market continues its upward trajectory in H1 2022

    25 shares
    Share 33 Tweet 21
  • Dubai home sales surged 55.9% in April

    34 shares
    Share 36 Tweet 23
  • Top nationalities continue to invest in Dubai real estate

    18 shares
    Share 64 Tweet 40
  • Dubai’s luxury home market to continue its golden run in 2022

    69 shares
    Share 28 Tweet 17
  • Dubai rents to pick up further in 2022

    24 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Coding, automation set to drive the digital economy

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10
  • BOP President first Pakistani to feature Miller’s Master Mentors Volume-II

    26 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • Iran says it foiled Israel-linked attacks on ‘sensitive’ sites

    22 shares
    Share 9 Tweet 6
Currently Playing

Zoom Property Insights - How Expo 2020 is Shaping up the Dubai Property Market | Dubai News TV

Zoom Property Insights - How Expo 2020 is Shaping up the Dubai Property Market | Dubai News TV

00:03:34

Learn When is Best Time to invest in Real Estate Market

00:08:02

Managing Personal Liquidity in 7 Steps | Shailesh Dash | Dubai News TV

00:11:27

The World Plays The UAE National Anthem

00:02:13

Meet the CEO : BANKING ON RAJEEV KAKAR

00:25:20

About US

DubaiNews.Tv is a fast-growing Dubai-based digital platform that covers news, happenings and current affairs with a central focus on Dubai, UAE, Gulf, Middle East. It also features regional and international news activities in addition to exclusive reports, interviews and special videos.

info@dubainews.tv

dubainews.tv@gmail.com

Follow Us

Browse by Category

  • Abu Dhabi
  • Afghanistan
  • Africa
  • Ajman
  • Asia
  • Bangladesh
  • Business
  • CPEC
  • Dubai
  • EDITOR'S CHOICE
  • Entertainment
  • ENVIRONMENT
  • Europe
  • EXCLUSIVE
  • Expo 2020
  • FEATURED
  • Featured Stories
  • Forex
  • Fujairah
  • GCC
  • Global Business
  • Health
  • heath
  • Horoscope
  • India
  • International
  • Iran
  • JOBS
  • Lifestyle
  • Local Business
  • Markets
  • Meet The CEO
  • MENA
  • Middle East
  • MORE
  • Movie
  • NEWS
  • Opinion
  • Pakistan
  • Philippine
  • Philippines
  • PR
  • Ras Al Khaimah
  • REAL ESTATE
  • REGION
  • Road To Financial Freedom
  • Russia
  • Science
  • Science
  • Sharjah
  • South Asia
  • Space
  • Sports
  • Spotlight
  • Sri Lanka
  • Startup
  • STOCKS
  • Syria
  • Tech
  • The Big Read
  • Top News
  • Travel
  • Tunisia
  • turkey
  • UAE
  • Umm Al Quwain
  • Uncategorized
  • Video Posts
  • Viewpoint
  • Weather
  • World

Recent News

Inside Saudi Arabia’s Plan to Build a Skyscraper That Stretches for 75 Miles

Inside Saudi Arabia’s Plan to Build a Skyscraper That Stretches for 75 Miles

August 11, 2022
U.S. Blacklists Ex-Paraguayan President Due to Alleged Corruption, Terrorism Ties

U.S. Blacklists Ex-Paraguayan President Due to Alleged Corruption, Terrorism Ties

August 11, 2022
Shrouded in secrecy for years, Russia’s Wagner Group opens up

Shrouded in secrecy for years, Russia’s Wagner Group opens up

August 11, 2022
Abortion opponents, election deniers: US midterm races take shape

Abortion opponents, election deniers: US midterm races take shape

August 11, 2022
Thousands evacuated from France’s Gironde as forest fires rage

Thousands evacuated from France’s Gironde as forest fires rage

August 11, 2022
  • About us
  • Community
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us

© 2022 DNTV - Powered By LSG GROUP.

No Result
View All Result
  • Top News
  • UAE
    • Dubai
    • Abu Dhabi
    • Ajman
    • Fujairah
    • Ras Al Khaimah
    • Umm Al Quwain
  • REGION
    • Middle East
    • GCC
    • MENA
    • South Asia
      • Afghanistan
      • Bangladesh
      • India
      • Pakistan
    • Asia
    • Africa
    • Europe
  • Business
    • Global Business
    • Local Business
    • Markets
  • World
  • REAL ESTATE
  • Entertainment
  • ENVIRONMENT
  • Expo 2020
  • FEATURED
    • Featured Stories
  • Horoscope
  • Meet The CEO
  • Road To Financial Freedom
  • Opinion
    • EDITOR’S CHOICE
    • The Big Read
    • Viewpoint
  • PR
  • Sports
  • Tech
  • Video Posts

© 2022 DNTV - Powered By LSG GROUP.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.