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A team of computer scientists from Rutgers University recently revealed a range of nasty things a hacker can do with some simple, difficult to detect, malware. A hacker could text your phone and drain your battery, turn on your microphone and eavesdrop on important conversations, or even turn on your GPS receiver and figure out where you are.

The good news is that the team did not demo ways for hackers to get these programs on your phone, and they have not identified any Android-specific vulnerabilities that would allow them to do so. The demo only shows what could be done if the malware gets on your smartphone.

While this might be good news for now, the researchers call for developing detection techniques so that average users won’t be significantly affected by these types of attacks. [HT: inc.com]

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