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New Smart-Phone Hacking Technique Uses Concealed Sound Inside YouTube Videos


Several voice commands actually inaudible have been uncovered clandestinely concealed within harmless YouTube videos which are capable of making unprotected iOS/Android mobiles towards executing malicious operations on another smart-phone in the vicinity devoid of the owner even becoming aware of it.

The new hacking technique involves using stream videos that users perform on their mobile phones. Streaming of videos is regarded as safe as in this no code is executed invisibly. But, such safety has turned into a nightmare with hackers currently attacking poorly protected smart-phones with the aid of specially created movie clips on YouTube. Deccanchronicle.com posted this, July 9, 2016.

Georgetown University professor Micah Sherr explains according to pcworld.com that the hacking tactic mayn't always work; however, it is just another game of numbers. Suppose 1m people see a kitten movie having one clandestine message embedded then out of that number 10,000 may've their mobiles in the vicinity. Suppose out of those, 5,000 load one URL tainted with malicious software, then there are 5,000 smart-phones coming to a malicious actor's control.

Suppose the hackers are knowledgeable about the details pertaining to the voice-identification program as well as know how it works internally then they can issue instructions that are audible and far more difficult for humans to decipher. Sherr says voice identification software got fast adapted to mobiles due to services like Apple's Siri as also Google Now, however, voice software has enabled devices to be hacked quite easily too.

True, it's possible to stop the attack; nevertheless, it can as well run prior to the phone user even comprehending what's actually happening. The concealed instructions implanted within the kind of videos discussed are varied such as ordinary Google searches or directions for downloading as well as installing malicious software, ultimately letting the attacker towards gaining complete hold over the device.

Security experts contend that defenses can get enforced in a series like informing the user at the time voice instructions get accepted alternatively appending one response system that verbally challenges. For safeguarding from the threat, filters could be incorporated into the voice identification program that would differentiate a PC-generated sound from a human's.

» SPAMfighter News - 7/14/2016

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