Botnets for iPhone & iPad

Rusli

Now they are thinking of having botnets to your iPhones & iPads!

 

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/ios-botnet-hacking,news-19253.html

 

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/scariest-security-threats,review-2144.html

 

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-anti-virus-software,review-2222.html

 

Mass Hacking of iOS Devices Possible, Researchers Say
By Jill ScharrAugust 1, 2014 8:50 AM - Source: Tom's Guide US

An army of zombie iPhones and iPads? It's not as impossible as it sounds, claim a group of Georgia Tech researchers. Though many people consider iOS security to be nigh-on impenetrable, these researchers say they can conduct a mass infection of iPhones and iPads and turn the captured devices into a botnet of "slaved" iOS devices to do their bidding. How do they do this? With Windows computers.

Details are still sketchy, as the Georgia Tech researchers behind the study are waiting to give their full report at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas next week. But for now, here's what we know about the potential to create an iPhone botnet.

MORE: 7 Scariest Security Threats Headed Your Way

When iOS devices connect to Windows PCs, as many do, they allegedly become vulnerable to certain types of specially crafted Windows malware. This gives the researchers the opening they need to potentially compromise iOS devices that have connected to infected Windows machines.

A botnet is a network of devices secretly running malware that allows them to be controlled via the Internet from a centralized administrator. The administrator can force the devices in the botnet to perform tasks such as sending spam or spreading more malware. Devices in a botnet are sometimes called "zombies" because they aren't in control of their own actions.

Depending on the type of malware used to "zombify" the infected devices into the botnet, the devices' original owners may lose some or all control over their devices — or they may never learn that something is wrong.

Scariest Security Threats Headed Your Way: Special Report
By Jill ScharrApril 30, 2014 7:02 AM
What keeps security experts up at night?

“We still have a very fragile international financial system, and we know that ... [Electric] power is fragile ... Even food delivery is fragile from the cyber perspective.”

That’s Dave Aitel, former NSA research scientist and founder of Miami Beach, Florida-based software security company Immunity Inc. He’s not alone. “People in the know are scared, and they’re scared for good reasons,” Aitel told Tom’s Guide.

Social media attacks masquerade as messages from your friends. Data breaches steal your personal information from companies you trusted. The Internet is not a safe place to be. With the possibility of so-called “cyberwar” looming on the horizon, the threats are only increasing.

MORE: Best Antivirus Software 2014

For example, the first three months of 2014 saw 254 data breaches worldwide, resulting in the theft of 200 million records. That’s a 233 percent increase from the first three months of 2013, according to the Breach Level Index reported by Belcamp, Maryland-based information security company SafeNet Inc.

What’s worse, only 1 percent of these 254 breached databases used encryption or other security measures that would make the stolen data unusable to criminals. In the other cases, once the attackers breached the database’s outer defenses, the data was theirs for the taking.