WoW! I don't think it's your daughters' IQ I'm belittling but possibly yours for buying into this stuff.
For example, first link was talking about hacking Windows Phones in 2009. . . something that was known to be easily done. They don't exist in that operating system anymore and are far harder to attack now.
Your second link puts forward the FUD idea that an iPhone 4s sitting next to your computer could read the keystrokes on your computer as you type and then send that data to a malicious hacker who has somehow snuck a malicious App on the Apple App Store to read the micro-accelerations of the desk movements???? ABSURD!!!! Some of those require TROJANS to get on the iPhone, for example. There has been exactly ZERO malware on the iPhone in seven and a half years. ZERO. That includes trojans. ZERO. These are BS that somebody somewhere thought up an theoretical idea that they could do something like that idea of figuring out you could analyze what key someone was typing with the accelerometer. . . It's sensitive, but NOT THAT SENSITIVE. Even the author who came up with this fantasy gave himself an out. But then the source of this supposed vulnerability should give you pause:
"Of course, the algorithm for figuring out what you're typing based on tiny desk tremors is mind-bogglingly complicated (read it simply does not exist, it's a pipe dream! —Swordmaker), and the whole system is easily defeated by ... just not setting your phone next to your keyboard, so the chances of such an attack by your local garden-variety hacker are low. But since we already know that the government is trying to listen in on us at all times, we're typing up this article with a phone next to the keyboard just to let them know that we know." — Source: Cracked.com
Yes, that's the satire site similar to MAD Magazine! It's a SPOOF! An iPhone reading the keys being pressed on a computer keyboard next to it by the acceleration of the desk movement? Hilariously funny! I was laughing my rear end off half way through this, after I picked my jaw up off the floor. SHEESH! I almost did not read the rest of the article, this was so far off the wall!
The other four claims on that link are possible, but mostly easily avoidable. The camera hack is not possible on an iPhone: it cannot be turned on remotely. That also takes care of the last one about Big Brother spying in 3D. The malicious charging station hack requires a lot more on an iPhone to transfer any data. The station would have to know your passcode or AppleID. Highly unlikely. Sorry, another BZZZT. Oh, and the fake cell tower? Anyone setting one of those up these days would have to know the encryption used by the carriers. Not so easy as it was back in the day of non-digital transmissions. All of this is mostly FUD.
That said, there have been reports of unknown owner, apparently unauthorized cell-towers outside of US military bases. No one knows who they belong to, or what their purpose is. There is no evidence of private phones connecting to those towers, however.
Your baseband hacking from the Huffington post is also meaningless. . . The people who are claiming this seem to think that the baseband processors have ROOM in their memory for complex code. They don't. if you stick something into the baseband code, it will simply stop working as intended and cannot send anything because you've removed something important to its operation to stick in your code. Most of them are pretty straight forward. Some work on ROMs, and are not re-programable in any case. Nor are they usually directly connected to the memory of the phones. They are very simple parts of the phone, and they really haven't changed much in the past 20 years. Weinmann's proposal was to get physical possession of the phones and REPROGRAM the baseband processor so that it could bypass control and seize control of the microphone and listen in. If you have physical possession of the phone, why not just stick in a transmitter before giving it back?
Apple engineers said that baseband control of the mic really is not possible. They are completely separate modules in the phone. They literally are not connected to the microphone. The baseband processor manages the radios. . . and not the computer or the data. The computer on the iPhone controls the microphone and tells the baseband what to do. For the baseband processor to take control would be like the tail wagging the dog. This was discussed in depth on FreeRepublic back in 2011 when this first popped up. Incidentally, even your basic flip phones have baseband processors and could easily be turned into listening ports if this were true. It would not require a smartphone to do. More FUD.
The funniest one is your YOUTUBE link about hacking voice mail. . . because all of that has NOTHING AT ALL to do with smartphones at all! They hacked into the voice mail accounts at the carrier. . . and could just as easily do it with your daughters' flip phone voice mails or any other kind except for one you might have on a digital voice mail you have on a dumb machine you have at home with a fairly complex pass code! SHEESH!
The Sileo.com is just plain silly. First of all Apple is far more diligent about curating the Apple App store than this article claims. There have been three known malicious Apps that have gotten through their curating in the history of the App store. . . and those were more about getting around Apple's rules than stealing data. One, for example, had a tethering capability hidden in a popular camera app. The cost was dire. The developer not only had an App that had brought in over $750,000 in less than 3 months pulled, Apple pulled ALL of his company's apps. . . and he could not put any apps on the App store for over a year because of that little trick. Secondly, this article's claim is that the dangerous thing is YOUR phone number. . . and tracking. Apple does NOT allow apps to track location or anything about it's users. . . unless you specifically allow it for that app. All apps are sandboxed. They cannot "listen" in to your phone, messages, etc. Again, your information is antique.
Finally, your last link, which has the benefit of at least being from 2014, may mostly applies only to Android phones, and I kind of doubt even that. There is no way that listening to music, scanning a bar code, sending an SMS, finding a free WIFI, or watching a Video on an iPhone can cause it to get infected. It is extremely unlikely that could even happen on an Android phone. While there are over a million malware out there for Android, there are ZERO malware in the wild for iOS iPhones. This researcher claims his team has identified a problem in Java script that could be used to create a "worm." A Java Script worm cannot infect the operating system of an iPhone. The worst it can do is cause Safari or the browser the script is running in to crash. Big deal. The Apps run in sandboxes and cannot effect the OS install. . . or other apps. Nor can the script install itself. Ergo, no danger.
I have kept on top of this stuff for many years. Most of this is merely spreading Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. FUD. I find it almost unbelievable that someone who is a conservative FALLS for this line of bilge.
You are correct and I apologize. I will immediately bow to your years of wisdom and tell my daughters to get smart phones and do everything in the world they want with them.
I will also tell all the IT people at my present job that they are idiots and I found a guy on the internet who says so and we should listen to him.
How about you give me a phone number and they can call you and set up a class?