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Las Vegas -- Injecting malicious code into legitimate Android mobile applications can turn smartphones into spyphones with little effort, which could pose a problem for businesses that support BYOD programs, a researcher told the Black Hat security conference.
Climbing a very low learning curve, researchers at Kindsight (part of Alcatel-Lucent) with no previous experience with the Android software developers' kit were able to crank out a custom version of the game Angry Birds that ran on an Android phone, says Kevin McNamee, director of security architecture at Kindsight.
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The altered app gave access to the device's GPS, microphone, camera, Wi-Fi radio, email, text messages and contact lists, he says....