Hacker can use Smartphone Apps to control industrial processes

Smartphone Apps

Two security researchers Alexander Bolshev and Ivan Yushkevich last year conducted a randomized study of 34 enterprise applications from Google Play, including developers of industrial control systems suppliers Siemens and Schneider Electric. They found 147 security holes from the app. The researchers did not disclose which company was in the worst condition and did not disclose the specific application of the flaw.

The researchers said only two applications found no loopholes. Some of the vulnerabilities they discovered allowed hackers to interfere with the flow of data between applications and machines or associated processes. By interfering with the data, for example, engineers might mistakenly think that the actual overheated machine still runs within the safe temperature threshold.

Another vulnerability allows an attacker to embed malicious code on a mobile device and issue malicious commands to a server that controls the machine. Serious words may cause confusion on the assembly line or cause the refinery to explode. This is just an extreme assumption. Researchers said they have contacted the companies, some of them have fixed the loopholes, while others have not responded.

Reference: technologyreview