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: Sep 08, 2013 9:14 am
Related Forum: Mobile Devices

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