NFC Can Be Used to Steal Files and Take Control of Phones, Expert Says

Since he was banned from Apple’s App Store developer program for playing dirty, Charlie Miller has turned his attention to other areas of mobile security. At the upcoming Black Hat security conference in Vegas, he plans to show off a few clever tricks that rely on near-field communication (NFC) technology.

This relatively new technology allows NFC-enabled devices to communicate with each other on short distances.

While NFC was mainly developed for making payments directly from mobile phones, Miller plans to demonstrate that it can be successfully utilized to do so much more.

The researcher claims that NFC can be used to make phones parse documents, images, videos and contacts without any user interaction.

And that’s not all. He will show that an attacker can steal images and contacts, make phone calls, and send SMS messages via NFC.