Smartphones of Israeli soldiers "targeted" by pirates with an application of the 2018 World Cup



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A few days ago, Israeli security agencies announced that the Hamas terrorist organization had installed spyware on Israeli soldiers' smartphones, which was another attempt to extract information. of this historical enemy. A hundred people were victims of an attack that took the form of a fake app dating or related to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, featured on Google Play Store, the app store official Google.

Once the user unaware of the danger, installed the application on his cell phone, the deeply invasive malware has conducted a series of malicious activities including:

  • record phone calls from the user
  • take a screenshot when the user has received a call;
  • steal the user's contacts;
  • steal SMS messages from the user;
  • steal all the images and videos stored on the mobile device and the information on where they were taken;
  • identify the GPS position of the user
  • perform random recordings of the user's environment;
  • Steal files and photos from the storage of the mobile device.

This attack, which saw the malware bypbad the Google P lay protections, is a good example of how hackers hide in applications related to world-famous events and take advantage of them to attract potential victims.

However, this is not the first time this tactic is used. Specific objective is against government agencies all over the world. In early 2017, for example, spyware Viperat attacked Israeli soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip, subtracting from their smartphones, through social engineering techniques, photos and audio files. . In March 2016, SmeshApp, an Android app for calls and messages, would be used by Pakistan to spy on Indian military personnel and again in 2016, Russian hacker group APT was suspected of using Android spyware for monitor a unit. Ukrainian Field Artillery

All of these cases demonstrate the evolution of cyber threats and continue to use smartphones as vectors of attack. In addition, if these threats come from hackers or non-state cybercriminals, they often use sophisticated techniques and malware to bypbad traditional controls and achieve their goal.

Check Point Software Technologies Extreme need to equip smartphones and mobile devices with total protection. Smartphones are our main communication tools and contain most of our personal data. In addition, employees use them to access data and business networks on the go. It should therefore be a priority for businesses to know what applications are on business smartphones to protect the data they store. In addition, although third-party app shops do everything in their power to prevent the loading of malicious applications, sophisticated attacks like this one will always find an ambiguous way of circumventing them, thus making the protection of mobile devices even more necessary. Free apps should only be installed if they come from known companies with millions of downloads.

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