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Cell phone spying exploding at 'frightening' paceFeb 17, 2011 (WXIN-TV - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Each day cell phones do more and more and become even a bigger part of our daily lives. An expert in mobile technology said with each advancement in technology though, it's becoming easier for people to track and spy on unsuspecting people. Private investigator Tim Wilcox specializes in finding out if people are being spied on, and he had the tools to prove it. Each of his elaborate devices help him sweep a room for audio bugs and cameras hidden just about anywhere, but recently he's been using this equipment less and less. "It's so easy to bug a cell phone any more that it's kind of a waste of time to bug an office using traditional technology," said Wilcox, President of International Investigators Inc. Tim started warning clients and checking phones for spyware a few years ago in response to a handful of companies based online, but in the last year he said it's exploded into a full fledged industry. As smartphone sales surged, thousands of sites started offering software for the latest Blackberry, iPhone and Google Android phones. Each program promising to help the buyer protect their children, catch a cheating spouse or stop employee espionage. "Once it's on the phone, it's controlled via the internet anywhere in the world," said Daniel Smith, a mobile forensics investigator for International Investigators Inc. Smith tracks down spy software that may have been secretly planted on phones, which can take days searching through thousands of lines of code. "On this particular file it's "net-sys-resource" and that's the actual file," Smith said while pointing at a computer screen full of code. "That's the spyware that's been installed on this phone." The tiny line of code helps someone track nearly all of the activity on a phone, despite the fact that in most states, including Indiana, using many of the features without consent is illegal. That doesn't mean it can't still be purchased at a relatively tiny price. "If you've got $50 and a credit card you can get some of the best software there is out there," Smith said. Fox59 News decided to try it for ourselves. We chose a product that charged just $25 a month for a host of features, installed it on a Blackberry and then asked volunteer Angie Justice to use the phone for one night. After choosing what phone activity to monitor, it didn't take long for it to start working. When Angie made a call or received one, it also sent a text message to our own cell phone. All we had to do was call Angie in order to be silently connected to the conversation she was having. Listening to phone calls was just the beginning. All we had to do wass login to an online account online and we could review text messages, emails, and even track Angie's location through GPS. We also had the ability to call Angie's phone when she wasn't using it. The call tapped in to her speakerphone, so that we could listen to any conversation within earshot of the device. Most of the current spy software, including the program we purchased, had to be installed directly on the target phone, but it took just a couple minutes. All you do is go online and download a link, and on newer phones you can also take a shortcut by snapping a picture of a mobile UPC code, which causes the program to immediately begin downloading. Even though the methods require access to the phone itself, the owner of the phone could also be tricked into doing it themselves if the information were to be disguised and sent in an email. "I'm sending you a link and you're actually putting the spyware on your own phone and you don't know it," Smith said. The more advanced your phone is, the more the software can tap into. Take your video camera for example. If you make a movie on your phone, the software will actually send a copy of that movie to the email of the person keeping an eye on you. The same goes for websites you visit, mobile chats, and of course photos you take. Within seconds we received a photo Angie took of her family. "That's all you needed to get that picture was to download something?" Angie said. "Wow. I feel invaded." "It's frightening," Wilcox said. "The smarter the phone, the easier it is to bug." To see more of WXIN-TV, Indianapolis, go to http://www.fox59.com/ Copyright (c) 2011, WXIN-TV, Indianapolis Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. |