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Security

Iran 'Hides Spyware in Wallpaper, Restaurant and Games Apps' (bbc.com) 24

Iran is running two surveillance operations in cyber-space, targeting more than 1,000 dissidents, according to a leading cyber-security company. From a report: The efforts were directed against individuals in Iran and 12 other countries, including the UK and US, Check Point said. It said the two groups involved were using new techniques to install spyware on targets' PCs and mobile devices. And this was then being used to steal call recordings and media files.

One of the groups, known as Domestic Kitten or APT-50, is accused of tricking people into downloading malicious software on to mobile phones by a variety of means including: repackaging an existing version of an authentic video game found on the Google Play store, mimicking an app for a restaurant in Tehran, offering a fake mobile-security app, providing a compromised app that publishes articles from a local news agency, supplying an infected wallpaper app containing pro-Islamic State imagery, masquerading as an Android application store to download further software.

The American-Israeli company's researchers documented 1,200 victims being targeted by the campaign, living in seven countries. There had been more than 600 successful infections, it said.

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Iran 'Hides Spyware in Wallpaper, Restaurant and Games Apps'

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  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday February 08, 2021 @11:45AM (#61040502)
    Iran just isn't very good at it. How do I know? They got caught.
  • The software they were using was sold to them by an Israeli company.

    Because let's face it, they are the world leaders in that business. ^^

    • The software they were using was sold to them by an Israeli company.

      Because let's face it, they are the world leaders in that business. ^^

      It'd be even more hilarious if the ultimate backer of the thing was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] (WH Group).

    • by cusco ( 717999 )

      The US just hides its spyware in the telecom conglomerates. It's much more efficient to just snoop all the traffic in the world and not have to figure out how to get your spyware installed on the target's systems.

    • Sounds like a Proud Boy wants to convince everyone his friends are nice.
    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      It would be a page right out of their playbook. Sell the regime spyware. Wait until it gets installed. Then point a finger and say, "Oh noes! Spyware on your PCs." Just what they need to destabilize the regime a bit further.

      Iran's Supreme Leader receives most of his support from the less educated lower classes. And this espionage will hit the urban middle and upper classes harder. So class warfare ensues. Israel, Saudi Arabia, the USA and Daesh just sit back and laugh.

  • by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Monday February 08, 2021 @12:04PM (#61040602)
    Wouldn't someone have seen the mics and cameras when they were applying the glue and sticking the stuff to the wall?
  • Did you know that dictators spy on Captain Obvious?

  • by bagofbeans ( 567926 ) on Monday February 08, 2021 @01:39PM (#61040984)

    In the case of the USA, the TSA no-fly list is abused to harass those that piss off the gov.

    https://progressive.org/op-eds/protesters-detained-milwaukee-fly-list/ [progressive.org]

    Twenty of the 37 members of the Peace Action Milwaukee group--including a priest and a nun--were pulled aside and questioned by Milwaukee County sheriff's deputies.

  • by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Monday February 08, 2021 @01:55PM (#61041044)

    "Iran 'Hides Spyware in Wallpaper, "

    Are Persian rugs still safe to buy? :-)

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