Hey Bonus! New Chinese Cellphone Comes Pre-Loaded With Spyware!

Here's hoping we don't see these at Best Buy anytime soon. (No, that's not the phone pictured. it resembles a Samsung Galaxy).

According to the company G Data Software,  who monitor,  critique and report on all things tech,  have discovered a popular selling Chinese phone that apparently comes preloaded with dangerous software.  

G Data says the Chinese Star N9500, which is also sold in other countries, comes with a program buried deep in it's internal workings that could allow a hacker to steal virtually all a user's personal information stored on the device.   Scary, considering how much personal information we have dumped into our little walking computers.

G Data says it found the spyware when it ordered a headset to go with the phone it was testing last month.  The company bought one of the Star N9500's after hearing numerous consumer complaints about the phone, so they decided to test it.

According to G Data:

"G Data said the spyware it found on the N9500 could allow a hacker to steal personal data, place rogue calls, or turn on the phone's camera and microphone. G Data said the stolen information was sent to a server in China."

This isn't the first time this has happened.   the German cellphone provider E-Plus found malicious software buried inside on handsets that were delivered to some of it's customers who had purchased their Base-brand phones.