Rutgers researchers warn of smart-phone privacy risk


Rutgers University researchers warned this week that smart phones could be susceptible to a virus that would turn them into eavesdropping or tracking devices, MyCentralJersey.com reports. As cell phones become more like personal computers, they are also taking on the same virus risks as the PC, but with the potential for far more serious consequences, the researchers claim. Researchers from the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences said devices such as the Blackberry or iPhone could be attacked by malware known as a “rootkit,” which attacks a computer‘s operating system and can only be detected using a special monitoring device not available for phones. Computer science professors Vinod Ganapathy and Liviu Iftode say these types of attacks on smart phones can be more devastating, because people carry phones everywhere they go. “What we’re doing today is raising a warning flag,” Iftode said in a statement. “The next step is to work on defenses.” The Rutgers team is presenting its findings at the 11th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications this week in Maryland…

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