Hacked Phones Could Be Listening To Everything You Say

How researchers exploited a vulnerability in Cisco IP phones to remotely activate the microphone and eavesdrop on conversations.

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributing Writer Most people believe that their phone conversations are private. Well, they may not be as private as you think if your office or home is filled with hacked phones. Researchers at Columbia University have discovered a flaw in Cisco telephones that allows a hacker to turn a telephone's microphone into a sophisticated recording device. Using this flaw an attacker can eavesdrop on conversations remotely. 5th year PhD candidate Ang Cui and Columbia Professor Sal Stolfo discovered the flaw while working on a U.S. Defense Department grant for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). According to the researchers, they can remotely command a hacked phone to do anything they want. For example, they say they can activate a webcam on a phone or instruct the phone's LED light to remain off when the phone's microphone has been activated. This way the eavesdropping victim won't be alerted when their conversation is being recorded. Ang Cui, who works in the Intrusion Detection Systems Lab at Columbia University, gave a presentation on December 29th demonstrating the hack at the Chaos Communications Conference in Germany. The demonstration is appropriately titled "Hacking Cisco Phones: Just Because You Are Paranoid Doesn't Mean Your Phone Isn't Listening To Everything You Say". During the presentation Cui shows examples of Cisco phones used not only in companies and educational institutions, but also used in government and military applications. Read more at virtualthreat.com virtualthreat.com/2013/01/08/hacked-phones-could-be-listenin… cisco phone hacking, hacked cisco phones, hacking cisco phones, hacking phones, hacked phones, phone hacking