That's a far cry from the impression given in the video -- "malicious software hijacked our phone before we even finished our coffee!"First, all the attacks required some kind of user interaction. Whether to execute “applications” or to open a Microsoft Word document, all the attacks shown required user interaction in order to compromise the device.
Second, these attacks could happen anywhere. They would not just happen in Moscow, nor did it require us to be in Moscow. Whether those attacks occur while you are sitting in a coffee shop in Berlin, or your home in Tokyo, these types of attacks can and do occur, on a worldwide scale.
Third, the infections occurred on newly unboxed hardware. Had basic security precautions such as updating the operating system or not opening emails from unrecognized sources been done, these attacks could have been prevented.
Finally, to reiterate, while all three devices looked like they had been compromised with no user interactions that was just not the case. Incorrect impressions may have been formed due to the editing process; no zero-days were used and all infections required plenty of risky behavior to succeed.
Starting at around 0:01:30
NBC's Richard Engle did a story that mobile phones and computers were hacked the second people arrived in Russia for the Olympic Games. Leo says that the NBC story was completely false, and faked to get the audience looking at Russia in a specific way. Leo says that they would get hacked if the reporter deliberately went to a malicious site and downloaded the software that would infect the computer or mobile phone. Engle was also a thousand miles away in Moscow when he did it. And he deliberately disabled the security on his Android phone before he did it. And Leo says the results would've been that way anywhere in the world. MAJOR FAIL.
You run your updates, you patch your browser, and you avoid malicious sites. We expect more from NBC and it damages their credibility as a news organization. And Leo said it would've been useful if they had done a story about how easy it could be to get hacked if you're careless.
