The Trojan Horse In Your Pocket: How Everyday Tech Is Being Weaponized

Forbes

17-07-2025

Wayne Lonstein, CEO, VFT Solutions, Inc. Anti-Piracy, Social Media and Cybersecurity law and practice.
From the smartphone in your hand to the car in your garage, the technology that powers your daily life may also be working against you. What was once the stuff of spy thrillers is now reality: consumer electronics—when manufactured in adversarial nations or connected to opaque systems—can become instruments of surveillance, control or even warfare. I discussed the risks of such overreliance in a 2018 Forbes article when I introduced the term "intechication."
Mandated use and reliance upon technology in every aspect of our daily lives have created vulnerabilities and risks that are no longer speculative. Connected technology is embedded in your firmware, routed through your cloud services and amplified across your social feeds, residing in your appliances, phone, internet, electricity and other utility services.
Of major concern is China's dominance in electronics manufacturing, which gives it gives it vast influence over the global tech supply chain. Electronic devices exported from Chinese factories have been discovered with pre-installed malware. These vulnerabilities can't be patched with a simple update; they're often baked into the hardware.
According to former NSA director Mike Rogers, these threats are real and of concern: "We know that China believes there is value in placing at least some elements of our core infrastructure at risk of destruction or disruption. I think that the Chinese are, in part, hoping that the widespread use of inverters limits the options that the West has to deal with the security issue."
Autonomous vehicles add a new layer of complexity. With cameras, sensors, GPS tracking and cloud integration, these rolling data centers can be monitored or disabled remotely. If components or software originate from untrusted sources, the risk extends to physical safety and national infrastructure. Even innocuous-seeming devices—smart TVs, baby monitors, fitness trackers—are potential vulnerabilities. They collect and transmit data constantly, often with minimal security or user oversight. According to Suzanne Bernstein, counsel at Electronic Privacy Information Center, "Health data collected by many wearable devices and health and wellness apps don't fall under HIPAA's umbrella."
In recent conflicts, off-the-shelf drones have been repurposed for surveillance, targeting and even improvised attacks. In Ukraine, consumer drones are now part of the battlefield toolkit. And smartphones have been turned into IED triggers (registration required) for decades.
These tools offer strategic advantages: They're cheap, common and difficult to trace. Legacy devices like pagers, once considered obsolete, have also been reportedly used in covert missions—the most notable of which was the apparent Israeli attack on Hezbollah, where thousands of pagers distributed by Hezbollah to its operatives in Lebanon and Syria exploded.
The lesson is clear: Even low-tech tools can become high-risk in a technology-centric world.
Foreign intelligence services don't need to smuggle agents into enemy territory—they just need access to the software supply chain. Malware campaigns like China's APT41 and Russia's NotPetya have shown how compromised consumer and business software can serve as vectors for espionage and sabotage. Worse still, these attacks are often undetected for months or years, lying dormant until they're activated—either during conflict or in moments of strategic tension.
The threat isn't only abroad. In the U.S., law enforcement has increasingly deployed Stingray devices—tools that mimic cell towers and intercept mobile phone signals. These devices collect data indiscriminately and are often used without judicial oversight.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has been stretched beyond its original intent, allowing agencies to access cloud-stored messages, documents and communications with limited transparency. In the shadowy world of covert data collection, you can end up with plenty of dolphins in tuna fishing nets. According to House of Representatives testimony of Americans for Prosperity's James Czerniawski, "The FBI used Section 702 data to conduct 200,000 warrantless searches of American citizens' communications in 2022 alone. In 2023, a FISA Court opinion revealed that the government improperly searched the 702 database 278,000 times between 2016 and 2020. It used the database to spy on people present at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and to find information about Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, among other things."
Artificial intelligence now governs energy grids, transportation systems and financial markets. As AI becomes more autonomous, the risks of malfunction—or manipulation—increase. A compromised or misconfigured AI system could trigger cascading failures, cut off emergency services or escalate conflict before human intervention is possible. Even more alarming is the rise of deepfakes and large language models (LLMs). AI-generated videos and audio can impersonate politicians, fabricate events and spread disinformation at scale. LLMs, if abused, can produce extremist content, guide harmful actions or generate synthetic propaganda—without accountability.
Since the launch of multiple platforms in the early 21st century, social platforms are no longer just tools of expression—they're battlegrounds for influence. Russia's use of troll farms during U.S. elections and China's social media campaigns to suppress dissent are just the beginning. As we saw in the "Arab Spring," social media also enables rapid mobilization—of protests, riots and radicalization. Algorithms optimized for engagement often amplify the most divisive content, creating echo chambers where conspiracy spreads faster than truth.
Additionally, as the Covid-19 pandemic revealed, social media platforms were pressured by governments and private interests to silence certain viewpoints or manipulate visibility, the digital public square becomes a tool of control.
The real war of the 21st century may not be fought with bombs and bullets—it may be waged through apps, devices and AI. The Trojan horse is already here, shipped in packaging we eagerly unwrap and install in our lives.
To meet this challenge, governments and companies must prioritize transparency, secure their supply chains, regulate AI responsibly and protect civil liberties in the digital age. Because in a world where every device could be a weapon, the first step to defense is knowing where the vulnerabilities lie.
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