Phones for low-income users hacked before they’re turned on, research finds

Rameez Anwar's phone was in serious trouble. The device, which was paid for by the government-funded Lifeline program for low-income people, was overflowing with pop-up ads rendering it unusable. Despite multiple factory resets, the problem would not go away.

"As soon as it discovered the Internet," said Anwar, "it started pop-ups."

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Anwar, who says he has tinkered with computers since childhood, suspected that the phone had malware installed. So he sent it to Nathan Collier, a researcher at Malwarebytes.

Collier confirmed Anwar's assumption: ...