[pct-l] Slightly off topic phone question

[John Abela]

Hey Mike,

No modern "smart phone" has been prone to what you might think of a "PC
virus" that I am aware of.

Often times smart phones will only open known file-types and that helps
protect you from randomly clicking on unknown files.

Yes, keystrokes can be captured on most smart phones. I develop phone
software and I can easily capture keystrokes on an iphone, android, palm
pre, and windows 7. It is a bit harder to do on a blackberry but it is still
possible. Of course, what a develop does with those 'captured keystrokes'
can mean the difference between the owners software doing cool things to
help it's owner, or land the software develop in a federal prison for
federal crimes. I can just as easily send your keystrokes to just about
anywhere (which would probably be illegal in most situations) as I could
easily have those keystrokes help improve your typing skills on the phone
(just as an example.)

The obvious answer is to not use a smart phone and just get a "dummy phone"
that only makes/receives calls. Lots of them still out there. Called "burner
phones" in a lot of places.

Of course another awesome solution for back country hikers is to go with a
SatPhone. GlobalStar (the leader in satellite phones) has one hell of a deal
right now. http://www.globalstar.com/en/index.php?cid=1250  $499 for the
phone, $19.99 a month for unlimited voice usage. GlobalStar has been having
issues the last few years (their satellites got overloaded) but they started
shooting new satellites up in late 2010 to fix things. Right now you might
have to wait 5-10 minutes to have a working satellite in geosynchronous
orbit above you, but they are saying that by years end, at least in the USA,
that should be resolved. The phone itself hits the scale at 7-ounces.

Hope this info helps.

John
RedwoodGuy



On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 6:43 AM, Mike Cunningham <hikermiker at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Slightly off topic.
>
> Many people carry phones while out on the trail. Some of these are smart
> phones, some are stupid, and many are in between. Often responses to this
> list are from phones.
>
> We all know that if you open something bad on a pc you may get it  infected
> with a virus or some critter that sends your keystrokes to another computer.
> What happens if you open such a thing on a phone? Can a phone get a virus?
> Can the keystrokes be captured?
>
> hm
>
>
>
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