How Hackers Can Crash Your Phone Via Wifi

Among the many tools at the disposal of hackers is the ubiquitous “denial of service” attack (DoS), which is basically the sending of endless traffic to a specific site until it crashes from the overload.

Many people believe that hackers direct this kind of attack only at corporate websites and servers – that’s incorrect.

Online security experts have now researched and proven that it’s possible to attack iOS devices in a similar way, causing both individual applications or an entire mobile phone to malfunction.

Mobile security firm Skycure released the results of its research on the subject at a recent industry conference, showing exactly how hackers can potentially target any device using the iOS operating system.

For hackers, the process is as simple as setting up a wireless network for phones to connect to. Once linked, a hacker can launch a script aimed at any particular device, which will cause it to crash.

Skycure’s latest finding go hand in hand with previous studies it conducted, which revealed attackers could similarly create a Wifi network and cause devices to automatically connect. With all of these findings combined into a larger picture, it becomes clear that large targeted attacks could happen in highly populated areas. A determined hacker could set up shop in Times Square and  crash thousands of mobile devices in a short amount of time.

Unfortunately, there is nothing one can do to avoid this type of attack, except stay away from all unknown, unsecured Wifi networks.

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