New software uses smartphone camera for spying
Researchers from the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center have developed malicious software that can remotely seize control of the camera on an infected smartphone and employ it to spy on the phones user.
The malware, dubbed PlaceRaider, allows remote hackers to reconstruct rich, three-dimensional models of the smartphone owners personal indoor spaces through completely opportunistic use of the camera, the researchers said in a study published last week.
The program uses images from the camera and positional information from the smartphones gyroscopic and other sensors to map spaces the phones user spends a lot of time in, such as a home or office.
Remote burglars could use these three-dimensional models to study the environment carefully and steal virtual objects [visible to the camera]
such as as financial documents [or] information on computer monitors, the researchers reported.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/2/new-software-uses-smartphone-camera-spying/
undergroundpanther
(11,925 posts)Some computer savvy person conceivably could use it to spy on corporate executives and backroom deals , republican think tanks and secret closed door talks that interfere with good legislation.. It can be used to listen in when lobbyists come to DC,or when the churchly types want to make laws to force religion or interfere with others lives,or to monitor the true non-ethics of the supreme court.
If the assholes in power use it on the people, the people will eventually get it, and use it on them someday. I would be one to rejoice in equality of transparency.They want to know everything about us,well we need to know all about them...that kind of cyber nosiness can backfire on those assholes in power with too much money who are scared of the people,whom..they see as inferiors to the rich class of pigs.People the1 % routinely abuse, lie to,cheat,ignore,take rights away from, and rob. Yet the 1% are loathe to admit their rich parasite class are totally dependent upon the poor and classes they see as lessors..
The truth being shared with the world about the 1% assholes and their allies like the the church corporation and military do,all who scheme,bully, hide the truth,and try to escape the consequences of what they do via secrecy,
I'd call that the beginnings of justice.
Comrade_McKenzie
(2,526 posts)The information we can obtain from them will do far more damage than them watching us eat our cereal.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)And now the hacking community will know it can be done.