Phoning home

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In computing, phoning home is a term often used to refer to the behavior of security systems that report network location, username, or other such data to another computer. Phoning home may be useful for the proprietor in tracking a missing or stolen computer. In this way, it is frequently performed by mobile computers at corporations. It typically involves a software agent which is difficult to detect or remove. However, phoning home can also be malicious, as in surreptitious communication between end-user applications or hardware and its manufacturers or developers. The traffic may be encrypted to make it difficult or impractical for the end user to determine what data are being transmitted. The Stuxnet attack on Iran's nuclear facilities was facilitated by phone-home technology, as reported by The New York Times.