5 ms·
A few reasons (imho): * No one has really tried. * Google will remove malicious apps from devices via Play Store if they spread too wide. * A phone botnet wo
by discreditable 9y ago
A few reasons (imho):
* No one has really tried.
* Google will remove malicious apps from devices via Play Store if they spread too wide.
* A phone botnet would be pretty lame for ddos, which is what botnets seem to be all about these days. Their connections are unreliable, and utilizing the botnet for more than a few hours would kill it's batteries.
Phone exploits seem to be more about harvesting personal data[1], ransomware[2], and/or adware[3].
1. http://www.zdnet.com/article/this-bank-data-stealing-android-malware-is-back-and-its-now-even-sneakier/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/this-bank-data-stealing-android...
2. http://www.zdnet.com/article/this-nasty-new-android-ransomware-encrypts-your-phone-and-changes-your-pin/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/this-nasty-new-android-ransomwa...
3. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31129797 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31129797
- MuffinFlavored 9y agoWhat are some other things botnets could be used for?
- nine_k 9y agoStealing CPU cycles for mining, password cracking, captcha solving, etc?
- discreditable 9y agoDon't forget spam!
- philsnow 9y agowhat's the one thing phones have tons of that desktops don't? sensors. lots and lots of them, and many of them don't require an explicit permission to access. if you pay the developers of a few nigh-ubiquitous mobile app dev libraries to let you phone home sensor data while their apps are on, you can probably get some really interesting novel information, and you might be able to find somebody willing to buy a dataset constructed from sensors on 50% of all smartphones.
- ta_12313i9ut0 9y agoAd fraud. Mobile video gives high CPMs.
- chatmasta 9y agoMany phones are connected to reliable WiFi for a significant percentage of the day.
- nine_k 9y agoUsing a phone for ddosing when it's charging and connected to wifi could be feasible, though, given a large enough infection rate.
- discreditable 9y agoTrue, but a better use of the phone would be to exploit the consumer router hosting the wifi and/or other IoT on the subnet and ddos with that.
- rbanffy 9y agoIt's an interesting idea. Considering phones connect to multiple wifi networks (work, home, market, coffee shop) having a set of exploits to further infect vulnerable APs would be an interesting idea. Every day I pass by a couple dozen open wifi networks.