German security firm, G Data Software has revealed that they have found that a cheap brand of Chinese-made smartphones have been sold with spyware software preinstalled.
The security firm confirmed that they had found malicious code hidden deep in the software of the Star N9500. G Data software decided to order the phone last month after they had received a number of complaints from its customers.
Thorsten Urbanski who is a spokesman for G Data Software confirmed that there is no trace of who manufactured the phone.
Urbanski stated, “The manufacturer is not mentioned. Not in the phone, not in the documentation, nothing else.”
G Data Software confirmed that the spyware could allow hackers to steal personal information, place rogue calls and turn on the phone’s camera and microphone. They also confirmed that any stolen information was sent to a server in China.
The smartphone Star N9500 is currently being sold by several major retail websites and by several companies that are listed in Shenzhen, southern China.
Bjoern Rupp who is the chief executive of GSMK believes that the frequency of such incidents is going to increase for a variety of reasons.
Rupp stated, “We have to assume that such incidents will increasingly occur, for different commercial and other reasons.”
Christian Geschkat who is a product manager at G Data Software believes that people need to start becoming very suspicious of supposedly great deals.
Geschkat stated, “In general, particularly cheap offers online that seem tempting should make buyers suspicious. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
Cybercriminals are developing more sophisticated ways of obtaining confidential data so it is now imperative that confidential data isn’t stored on devices where it isn’t needed.
It is also critical that all companies ensure that they have the best security plan in place and regularly test it to help protect themselves against the threat of cyber hackers and cyber thieves. This should be supported with a robust backup solution to ensure that data can always be recovered no matter what action a hacker or cyber thieves takes such as modifying or deleting the data.
