Displaying items by tag: CarrierIQ

After hearing from some of the top security analysts that CarrierIQ did not have any means of logging key strokes on a mobile device we now find that it does have that and can be asked to transmit the data to CarrierIQ.  Additionally there is evidence that CarrierIQ has captured SMS messages (due to a programming “glitch”). This new information came out of the letters sent in response to Senator Al Franken’s direct questions to CarrierIQ and the companies that utilize the software.

Just when you thought it was safe to dial your mobile phone again.  At the height of the CarrierIQ debacle a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request was put in to the FBI by the Blog MuckRock asking for “Manuals, documents or other written guidance used to access or analyze data gathered by programs developed by CarrierIQ”

It looks like the CarrierIQ debacle was quite possibly be a case of Chicken Little meets the digital era with a sinister plot twist. A few weeks ago the news broke that a software researcher (Trevor Eckhart) had found that software that was preinstalled on certain phones appeared to be acting like a keylogger. The hypothesis was based on finding two apps that he could not uninstall or stop. Then he discovered what looked like a link between these two apps and one of the debugging logs (that does record everything that you do). Eckhart announced his findings and a whirlwind of articles ran around the internet a few times.

With everything going on in the world and the noise about SOPA the last thing we need is another scandal. Unfortunately that is exactly what we have with CarrierIQ, a tracking and metrics software that is reported installed on a majority of smartphones in the US. The news came to light after a software researcher named Trevor Eckhart stumbled across this on his HTC phone. Eckhart has even gone so far as to show that this software is capable of capturing key strokes (stored as key press events many with unique Key IDs), location data, and a great deal of other information from you as you use your phone.