Oh dear, what should we do? Hide in the cave? Eat salmon with a sword? Oh wait, Mars, here we come! No wait, let's blow something up!!!!
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.
If you want to make sure nobody knows what you're saying/writing make sure you use peer to peer encryption. So, don't use phone calls or sms but encrypted voip, otr....
If you want to hide your meta data you have to turn off the sim card (which is nearly impossible on most smartphones) or just don't use a mobile phone.
I don't use one personally.
Also, they try to get maleware on your phone and use your PC as a gateway, so make sure that they can't get on your PC and you're fine (= use linux).
This has been the case since cellphones first existed. default cellphone protocols are not encrypted and are therefore usable by your carrier, your carrer has had acess to such information since forever.
the only difference now is that the NSA'S paying for access.
Pretty much the only thing you can do is use apps that use encryption to replace your operator's default service. I dont know why phones are being treated different than internet - it's the same thing.
You know what's worse? There's no mobile os that will actually refuse to track you. Android is google and google has a history of bending over for the nsa, Microsoft has numerous backdoors confirmed in windows, which makes them involved and ubuntu/jolla/tizen have yet to take off. the only OSes that have had secure encryption were RIM and to a certain point symbian.
Ya its also called the flame virus. That lets the cia/nsa access any pc's microphone +web-cam + a keylogger + screen capture. Kaspersky found it about a year ago. They said it could work an all platforms.
There's no mobile os that will actually refuse to track you
The OS has absolutely nothing to do with tracking. As soon as it uses a SIM card you're vulnerable. And if you consider a phone a "smart" phone (= you can install stuff on it) you can put maleware on it.
Kaspersky Lab was asked by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union to investigate reports of a virus affecting Iranian Oil Ministry computers.[7] As Kaspersky Lab investigated, they discovered an MD5hash and filename that appeared only on customer machines from Middle Eastern nations. After discovering more pieces, researchers dubbed the program "Flame" after the name of one of its modules.
Flame can spread to other systems over a local network (LAN) or via USB stick. It can record audio, screenshots, keyboard activity and network traffic.[6] The program also records Skype conversations and can turn infected computers into Bluetooth beacons which attempt to download contact information from nearby Bluetooth-enabled devices.[7] This data, along with locally stored documents, is sent on to one of several command and control servers that are scattered around the world. The program then awaits further instructions from these servers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame_%28malware%29
My point was and still is Kaspersky Lab found, named and is most likely the best source on the virus. It should also give us a very good idea of what the intelligence agencies in the USA can and have done.
They sell anti-malware! Of cause they find new malware, of cause they say it's dangerous, of cause they want you to think that the world is going to end. It means more money for them. So, why are they a good source then?
There is relatively good software for encrypted communication for smartphones but that doesn't help the meta data problem if you have a sim-card in the phone.
According to the article. NSA sends large amounts of data to israel to data mine. What does our information have to do with israel and why did it even end up in their hands.