The weakness in the GSM network technology may allow hackers to gain remote control of phones, says Germany’s Security Research Labs, a well-known expert on mobile phone security.
At present, Global System for Mobile Communications is used by billions of users in about 80 percent of the global mobile market. Hackers can use the vulnerability in the technology to make calls or send texts to expensive, premium phone and messaging services in scams, says the security expert.
On Tuesday at a hacking convention in Berlin Karsten Nohl, head of Germany’s Security Research Labs, said,
“We can do it to hundreds of thousands of phones in a short timeframe.”
Similar sort attacks against smartphones have been done before, but the new attack could expose any cellphone using GSM technology, he added.
Generally users hardly identify the problem until they receive their bills. Hackers make calls to the numbers from hacked business phone systems or mobile phones, then collect their cash and move on quickly before the action is identified.
