vOPCDE #5 - Tracking the mobile trackers (Costin Raiu)
Tracking the mobile trackers In 2014, I started tapping my home internet. Between a couple of unexpected discoveries (see OPCDE Online #2), this also confirmed that, as expected, the noisiest devices in terms of network traffic were my smartphones. Firing up new applications or even thinks like a free picture editor, or weather app, would generate a flurry of domain lookups and connections that had nothing to do with editing photos or the weather. Blocking these with Pihole and Pfsense was trivial, but the question remained – what kind of data do these free smartphone apps send over to their developers, or even further, to third parties? ecently, I reversed a weather forecast application looking to solve a Twitter mystery – how do certain companies track the movement of millions of people, almost in realtime? And how this data, allegedly aggregated and anonymized, can be used unmask the identity of real persons? The user’s privacy has become a powerful currency that is traded around and exchanged between various parties that most likely you’ve never heard of. How come they know where you live, where you work and where you sleep, what is your favorite coffeeshop or restaurant? And can you really do anything to prevent it? Costin Raiu, (Director of Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky); Costin specializes in analyzing advanced persistent threats and high-level malware attacks. He is leading the Global Research & Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky that researched the inner workings of Stuxnet, Duqu, Carbanak and more recently, Lazarus, BlueNoroff, Moonlight Maze and the Equation group. Costin’s work includes analyzing malicious websites, exploits and online banking malware. Costin has over 24 years of experience in anti-virus technologies and security research. He is a member of the Virus Bulletin Technical Advisory Board, a member of the Computer AntiVirus Researchers’ Organization (CARO) and a reporter for the Wildlist Organization International. Before joining Kaspersky, Costin worked for GeCad as Chief Researcher and as a Data Security Expert with the RAV antivirus developers group. Costin joined Kaspersky Lab in 2000 and became the Director of the Global Research & Analysis Team in 2010.
Tracking the mobile trackers In 2014, I started tapping my home internet. Between a couple of unexpected discoveries (see OPCDE Online #2), this also confirmed that, as expected, the noisiest devices in terms of network traffic were my smartphones. Firing up new applications or even thinks like a free picture editor, or weather app, would generate a flurry of domain lookups and connections that had nothing to do with editing photos or the weather. Blocking these with Pihole and Pfsense was trivial, but the question remained – what kind of data do these free smartphone apps send over to their developers, or even further, to third parties? ecently, I reversed a weather forecast application looking to solve a Twitter mystery – how do certain companies track the movement of millions of people, almost in realtime? And how this data, allegedly aggregated and anonymized, can be used unmask the identity of real persons? The user’s privacy has become a powerful currency that is traded around and exchanged between various parties that most likely you’ve never heard of. How come they know where you live, where you work and where you sleep, what is your favorite coffeeshop or restaurant? And can you really do anything to prevent it? Costin Raiu, (Director of Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky); Costin specializes in analyzing advanced persistent threats and high-level malware attacks. He is leading the Global Research & Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky that researched the inner workings of Stuxnet, Duqu, Carbanak and more recently, Lazarus, BlueNoroff, Moonlight Maze and the Equation group. Costin’s work includes analyzing malicious websites, exploits and online banking malware. Costin has over 24 years of experience in anti-virus technologies and security research. He is a member of the Virus Bulletin Technical Advisory Board, a member of the Computer AntiVirus Researchers’ Organization (CARO) and a reporter for the Wildlist Organization International. Before joining Kaspersky, Costin worked for GeCad as Chief Researcher and as a Data Security Expert with the RAV antivirus developers group. Costin joined Kaspersky Lab in 2000 and became the Director of the Global Research & Analysis Team in 2010.