BBC crafts malicious smartphone app to prove a point… we guess
You may surmise that Auntie Beeb is only good for news distribution from across the pond, but as it turns out, the BBC is apparently giving at least a few of its employees a little of that oh-so-coveted " 20 percent time ." In an effort to prove just how easy it is to create a smartphone application that can gank all sorts of personal information, a staffer at the organization spent just a few weeks learning enough code to create a "crude game." In play, the app would gather contact information, copy text messages and log the phone's current location; afterwards, it would shoot all of that information to a specified email address, but not before putting a serious hurting on the battery. All told, the spyware took up around 250 lines of the 1,500 making up the whole program, and thankfully for us all, the BBC decided against submitting the program into any app stores. Phew.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: across-the-pond, app, auntie-beeb, battery, bbc, beeb, crafts, drain, engadget, ill-willed-app, phone, security, staffer