RIM: hackers could take down mobile networks

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 18 Nov 2009 at 08:59

RIM has warned that the day when hackers use smartphones to bring down mobile networks is nearing.

Scott Totzke, RIM's vice-president of security, has suggested that hackers could assault mobile networks with denial of service attacks launched from smartphones.

The attacks would be similar to those that slowed internet traffic in the US and South Korea in July. He predicts smartphones being infected with malicious software that would exchange large data packets across the network.

Totzke claims the technique would only require a relatively small number of smartphones to be effective.

The warning comes as researchers identify increasing numbers of virus-tainted smartphone applications, including versions of Google Maps and computer games.

"These are not telephones anymore. These are computers. So people are going to have all the problems on their phones that they have on their computers," says Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer at Flexilis, a mobile security software maker.