Compliance Management, Privacy, Vulnerability Management

Researchers demo drone that intercepts smartphone data

Experts have developed a flying drone that secretly siphons smartphone data.

The flying gadget can detect mobile devices that have Wi-Fi search settings enabled, then send a signal that mimics one of a previous network the user has connected to in order to fool the device into thinking it's a trusted Wi-Fi network, according to a recent report by CNNMoney.

Once a connection is established, the drone can intercept data that includes sites visited, credit card information entered, location data, and usernames and passwords. A demo with CNNMoney allowed a researcher to obtain network names and location data on about 150 mobile devices.

Researchers at Sensepost Research Labs, who developed the hacking drone, will be sharing their research at the Black Hat conference in Singapore next week in hopes of shedding light on vulnerabilities within mobile devices.

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