Report reveals NSA can access most smartphones

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The National Security Agency’s (NSA) ability to hack into most leading smartphones, including iOs and Android systems, has been revealed in a Sunday report by news outlet “Der Spiegel.”

The internal documents expose the NSA's ability to gather contacts, call lists, SMS traffic, notes and even users' past and present location.

Each operating system allegedly has a dedicated hacking team, which we assume is for the purposes of gathering saved data in an efficient manner. However, iPhone users were apparently most prone to being hacked as a mini-program called “scripts” can gain access to dozens of vulnerable iOs features.

The findings do not come as a revelation, considering that we revealed US$52 billion dollars had been set aside for intelligence programs in the latest budget.

Der Spiegel says the phone tapping is not a mass surveillance tactic and claims only certain individuals of interest are targeted. It is not clear how the magazine obtained the documents, which haven't surfaced until now. However, there is speculation that American filmmaker and Der Spiegal author Laura Poitras may have obtained the information through whistleblower Edward Snowden.

At this stage, information about the number of phones that can be monitored is unclear. Until then, we certainly hope that the number is nowhere near the extent of the internet surveillance capabilities.

Posted:
Related Forum: Mobile Devices

Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/report-reveals-nsa-can-access-most-smartphones

Comments

"Report reveals NSA can access most smartphones" :: Login/Create an Account :: 60 comments

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Corn_DogPosted:

-Skillz I have nothing to hide lol xD


Exactly what I was thinking, I'm all good

-SkillzPosted:

I have nothing to hide lol xD

-SkillzPosted:

They are listening to our conversations

MentalistPosted:

McCutchen I don't really care for the NSA, they can watch me if they want :).


I'm not too bothered either, I have nothing to hide/be ashamed of.

MentalistPosted:

I recently read that they were listening to phone conversations in Belgiium aswell, they are everywhere :P

PlusnetPosted:

I don't really care for the NSA, they can watch me if they want :).

DV8Posted:

Not really a surprise to me, they could really steal your identity and hack into your devices whenever..

gmlukensPosted:

I'm not even surprised at this point

-Arkange85Posted:

But if the NSA can "hack" smartphones, other people can do. Anyway, I think a little part of the population is aware about that.

Evo8Posted:

Well this is pretty obvious, they're the NSA.