MegaDroid Project Studies Smartphone Security
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have built a self-contained, Android-based network to study cyber disruptions and help secure hand-held devices.
According to the news release, the researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have connected 300,000 virtual hand-held computing devices running the Android operating system in order to better understand large networks of smartphones and find ways to make them more reliable and secure.
The project, known as MegaDroid, is expected to result in a software tool that will help model similar environments and allow others to study the behaviors of smartphone networks.
A key element of the MegaDroid project, according to computer scientist John Floren, is a “spoof” Global Positioning System (GPS). According to the press release, the researchers created simulated GPS data of a smartphone user in an urban environment. “The researchers then fed that data into the GPS input of an Android virtual machine. Software on the virtual machine treats the location data as indistinguishable from real GPS data, which offers researchers a much richer and more accurate emulation environment from which to analyze and study what hackers can do to smartphone networks,” Floren said.
“MegaDroid primarily will be useful as a tool to ferret out problems that would manifest themselves when large numbers of smartphones interact,” said Keith Vanderveen, manager of Sandia’s Scalable and Secure Systems Research department. Vanderveen said Sandia also plans to use MegaDroid to explore issues of data protection and data leakage.
Watch a video of Sandia’s researchers discussing and demonstrating the MegaDroid project.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.