Warning - Carrier IQ on your smartphone

[codewalker]

Security researcher Trevor Eckhart discovered Carrier IQ on smartphones.
Some Mobile Phone Service Providers install Carrier IQ on your smartphone,
without telling you about it and without giving you an option to disable it.
Carrier IQ is a keylogger, reads your sms messages, who and when you make
a phonecall, what you surf on the net and where you are. All this with the
excuse to monitor smartphone usage to improve their networks ?

1.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/11/c ... gal-threat

2.
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/t ... -evil-ciq/

3.
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/t ... about-ciq/

gts cw

[electrochrisso]

I wouldn't mind betting that the service provider is not the only reason for this monitoring.
Big Brother Is Watching.

[Blood]

Just get an iPhone!

[ts-soft]

Just get an iPhone!

good joke

[X]

The IPhone have this rootkit and spyware as well.

[the.weavster]

When you install an app on the iPhone it doesn't even warn you what platform services the app is going to use. Security research has suggested the app store is riddled with apps that are designed to harvest your data:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10446402-245.html
http://www.pskl.us/wp/wp-content/upload ... Issues.pdf

Apple themselves are at it too:
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2011/04/secu ... -file.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57334 ... cker-says/
As you have to connect your iPhone to iTunes and submit your name and address to Apple in order to 'activate' your iPhone they can very easily cross-refer the 'anonymised' data they are collecting on you too.

You might find this interesting too:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2 ... ewed-video


On top of all that imo the iPhone looks extremely dated now.

[Kuron]

I am glad I don't own a mobile phone.

[MachineCode]

Relax, it was all false! No such spying at all -> http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57335 ... eylogging/

This entire thread should be deleted, as it's spreading false information.

[the.weavster]

Relax, it was all false! No such spying at all -> http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57335 ... eylogging/

From Carrier IQs own datasheet (http://carrieriq.com/overview/IQInsight ... asheet.pdf):
"Capture a vast array of experience
data including screen transitions,
button presses, service interactions
and anomalies"
(emphasis is mine)

This entire thread should be deleted, as it's spreading false information.

Oh FFS, the self-appointed censor's arrived. You've linked to an article giving an alternative version of events, that's enough already.

[MachineCode]

Dan Rosenberg, an exceptionally talented security consultant who has discovered more than 100 vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel, FreeBSD, and GNU utilities, extracted a copy of Carrier IQ's software from his own Android phones. He then analyzed the assembly language code with a debugger that allowed him to look under the hood. "The application does not record and transmit keystroke data back to carriers," Rosenberg told CNET. His reverse-engineering showed that "there is no code in Carrier IQ that actually records keystrokes for data collection purposes."

[the.weavster]

Dan Rosenberg, an exceptionally talented security consultant who has discovered more than 100 vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel, FreeBSD, and GNU utilities, extracted a copy of Carrier IQ's software from his own Android phones. He then analyzed the assembly language code with a debugger that allowed him to look under the hood. "The application does not record and transmit keystroke data back to carriers," Rosenberg told CNET. His reverse-engineering showed that "there is no code in Carrier IQ that actually records keystrokes for data collection purposes."

Is he infallible?

Carrier IQs own datasheet clearly states it can capture button presses and the video that kicked this scandal off clearly demonstrates it doing just that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T17XQI_AYNo

It even monitors what you are doing when you're in airplane mode and only using your own private network! How can the carriers justify that intrusion as just being analysis to improve their standard of service?

[MachineCode]

As the self-appointed censor, I am not qualified to answer your questions.

[GWarner]

I believe this is all a non-issue.

From what I understand and have heard reported about it, the Carrier IQ program helps cell phone carriers better understand its customers and how they use the services they provide so they can better manage their network.

Yeah, the Carrier IQ program captures everything that you do with your phone, but it doesn't record or transmit what it captures. Instead it analyzes it, then send the results of the analysis back to the carrier.

I also found out that not all carriers use the program. I currently use Verizon Wireless and they don't use the Carrier IQ program.

[the.weavster]

From what I understand and have heard reported about it, the Carrier IQ program helps cell phone carriers better understand its customers and how they use the services they provide so they can better manage their network.

Then why is it monitoring what you do even when you are not connected to their network?

Did you watch the video?

[Blood]

From what I understand and have heard reported about it, the Carrier IQ program helps cell phone carriers better understand its customers and how they use the services they provide so they can better manage their network.

Wow, you've drunk the coolaid!

Yeah, the Carrier IQ program captures everything that you do with your phone, but it doesn't record or transmit what it captures. Instead it analyzes it, then send the results of the analysis back to the carrier.

It logs everything. So if i steal your phone i have access to every keystroke and searches you've made with it.