Android malware can make calls even after switching your phone off

A recent warning has come out from AVG has come out that some 3rd party App stores have Apps which bring in a Android Trojan which pretends to shut off your phone when you press the power button.

 The Hacker News has a nice article about it Android Malware Can Spy On You Even When Your Mobile Is Off  or you can read the original AVG post Malware Is Still Spying On You Even When Your Mobile Is Off
As the AVG blog explains:

The malware affects versions of Android older than v.5 (Lollipop) and requires root permission to hijack the shut down process.
After pressing the power button, the phone displays an authentic shutdown animation, and the phone appears off. Although the screen is black, it is still on.
While the phone is in this state, the malware can make outgoing calls, take pictures and perform many other tasks without notifying you.

But beyond the obvious problems with a malware spying on you, recording you, and sending your data to Chinese servers, it can be making Premium Rate SMS or calls without your knowing it.

The Hacker news article points this out:

PowerOffHijack malware has ability to silently send lots of premium-rate text messages, make calls to expensive overseas numbers, take photos and perform many other tasks even if the phone is supposedly switched off.

The article also has good options for removing PowerOffHijack and preventing it from getting on your phone

Is a Smart House a Smart choice?

Over the past several weeks there have been numerous announcements about smart houses and smart homes.

There was a nice summary about how The smart home is the next battleground: What to expect from the top 3 tech companies? In this article TechTimes explains how 

Google, Microsoft, and Apple getting involved in home automation, it is clear that this will be the next battleground, and at the moment no one truly has the upper hand.

But there are more players looking to get into this market.

•  Deutsche Telekom seeks U.S. partners for its Qivicon smart home play
• Splunk: Can it be a back-end smart home play?

There are even do it yourself (DIY) options with articles explaining It is cheap and easy to turn your home into a smart house.

 

As with any new connected technology there are reasons to be concerned. For example here is a slide show of 4 ‘smart home’ gadgets you don’t want hacked and there are 3 big risks with 'smart homes'.

But for me the biggest concern is stories like how Australian Apple devices hijacked and held for ransom. 

Now consider that someone could hack your home, change (or deactivate) your alarm, change the access code, play with your heat, etc. 

It reminds me of some of the tricks played by a computer in Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress:

Mike had thought up a dandy; his "illness" was wild oscillations in conditioning Warden's residence. He was running its heat up, then down, on an eleven-minute cycle, while oscillating its air pressure on a short cycle, ca. 2c/s, enough to make a man dreadfully nervy and perhaps cause earache.

Do you want someone to have that kind of control over your home? I don't.