When it comes to wiretapping, the first perpetrator which comes to mind is usually the government. We’ve heard many stories over the past few years regarding warantless wiretapping and how the government has been using it. However, a new wave of wiretapping comes right from the consumer. Benjamin Sutherland of Newsweek writes about new wiretappers and how they can get into unsuspecting phones. In fact, a U.S. security consultancy group pegs the number of affected phones at 3 percent. When looking at the overall U.S. wireless landscape, that’s quite an imposing figure.
The process is rather simple. All the perp needs is your phone. He or she can then load up a program with relative ease — Sutherland describes it as the time it takes to download a ringtone. For smartphones with faster processing capacities, this can probably be a matter of seconds. Once the program gets on your phone, the fun begins.
Not only can the listener hear phone calls, but he or she can also activate the phone’s microphone without a call being in progress. This means that wherever you go, if your phone is tapped someone might be able to hear. Worse for the tapped: there is no record of any infringement. The tapped will be none the wiser, while the listener can hear everything he or she wants.
Like mobile phone viruses, wiretapping is an issue we will all face soon enough. It might be flying under the radar right now, but as the population moves towards higher-end phones with faster processors, they will become an even bigger issue. Better to learn about it now, before it’s too late.
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