Smartphone remote wipe vulnerability (iPhone, Android, ATT, virus)

[Mack Knife]

With phone makers and service providers rushing to put anti-theft services into place to protect those who can't figure out how to be aware of their surroundings, how long will it take before that nifty capability is exploited and phones start getting wiped as pranks?

[midwest61021]

Who knows, but I'm sure they'll be playing with the idea. Makes me all the more glad I don't have an Android, since that's they'll be targeting.

[Mack Knife]

Originally Posted by midwest61021

Who knows, but I'm sure they'll be playing with the idea. Makes me all the more glad I don't have an Android, since that's they'll be targeting.

Don't be so sure. Why do you think they will be after Android phones and not phones running other systems?

[midwest61021]

Originally Posted by Mack Knife

Don't be so sure. Why do you think they will be after Android phones and not phones running other systems?

I doubt they'll have much interest in phones which are java based, and rarely used on the internet.

[Mack Knife]

Originally Posted by midwest61021

I doubt they'll have much interest in phones which are java based, and rarely used on the internet.

There are other systems than Android on phones which do access the Internet, many often and many constantly.

[midwest61021]

Originally Posted by Mack Knife

There are other systems than Android on phones which do access the Internet, many often and many constantly.

Mine doesn't. No location services installed at all, no GPS, just wifi and bluetooth which I do not leave on.

[Peregrine]

We've had remote wipe capabilities for some time. It's not THAT new.
It's pretty secure as are phones in general. I wouldn't worry about this.

[adyn]

Originally Posted by midwest61021

I doubt they'll have much interest in phones which are java based, and rarely used on the internet.

Originally Posted by midwest61021

Mine doesn't. No location services installed at all, no GPS, just wifi and bluetooth which I do not leave on.

So since you're an iphone user that doesn't use the iphone for what it's made for (and what the general population does use it for), potential threats are most likely not targeted to the iphone...?

Further, if you never use the internet, what does it matter what platform you're using?

[CoreLysium]

I'll keep my "old" S4 and wait on the day where some hacker takes out a couple million cell phones.

It'll be fun news that day. But if I had a kill-switch phone, no, not so fun.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

We've had remote wipe capabilities for some time. It's not THAT new.
It's pretty secure as are phones in general. I wouldn't worry about this.

^^ Yup this. From a technical standpoint, the kill switch would be in a part of the software/firmware that would kill the device entirely, differently than a typical virus, exploit or malware would attack.

Exploiting a device to just shut off makes zero sense if I am hacker. What would the point be of killing phones? If I am a hacker, I WANT your phone on to get your info.

As far as a prank though, if it does happen, I dont think it would happen through an exploit. It would likely be because someone figured out the combo code.