Spy collection program using fake mobile phone apps linked to Pakistani military
May 22, 2018 2 Comments
The Pakistani military is suspected of having orchestrated a lucrative intelligence collection campaign using mobile phones, which targeted diplomats from India, Israel and Australia, as well as from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries such as the United States and Britain. Others targeted in the operation include officials from Iraq, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. News of the alleged spy operation was published earlier this month by Lookout Mobile Security, a security software company based in the United States.
The company said that the perpetrators of the operation managed to hack into a number of diplomats’ phones by creating a number of fake applications for Android and iOS mobile phone systems. The applications, called Tangelo (for iOS) and Stealth Mango (for Android), took control of mobile phone devices once their owners downloaded them through fake third-party app stores advertising online. According to Lookout, the two apps were designed by a consortium of freelance software developers who have close links with the Pakistani military establishment. The technical report published by Lookout points to the use of IP addresses that lead to a server housed in Pakistan’s Ministry of Education in the country’s capital, Islamabad. Lookout also said that it managed to trace the identity of the person who was the main developer of the two fake mobile phone applications. He is reportedly a full-time government employee who “moonlights as a mobile app developer”. The group that built the fake apps is known for creating legitimate apps, said Lookout, but also works for hire creating surveillanceware for mobile phone systems. In the past, the same group has been found to target military and civilian government officials in India, according to Lookout.
In its technical report, the Lookout security team describes how the Pakistani hackers collected a variety of data from their victims, by having it stealthily transmitted from compromised mobile phones to servers in Islamabad. The data included photos and videos, lists of contacts, logs of phone calls and texts, as well as detailed calendar entries. German and Australian diplomats had their travel plans stolen, and a letter from the United States Central Command to Afghanistan’s assistant minister of defense for intelligence was also acquired by the hackers. The latter also gained access to the contents of an entire database of pictures of traveler passports —many of them diplomatic— from the Kandahar International Airport in southern Afghanistan. The report said it was impossible to know for certain when Tangelo and Stealth Mango were first developed and utilized. However, the most recent version of the apps was released in April of this year.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 22 May 2018 | Permalink
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US alerts its diplomatic staff in China over ‘abnormal sounds and symptoms’
May 23, 2018 by Joseph Fitsanakis Leave a comment
Now a similar warning has been issued by the US Department of State for its staff stationed in China. In a statement, the Department said that a member of staff at its consulate in the Chinese city of Guangzhou reported experiencing “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure”. The unnamed individual reportedly suffered these physical symptoms between late 2017 and April 2018, said the statement. At that time, the individual was flown back to the US where they eventually were diagnosed with “mild traumatic brain injury”. The statement went on to state that the cause of these symptoms remains unknown, and that the US government has no information about other such incidents affecting Americans in China.
Late on Wednesday, however, speaking before the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US House of Representatives, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the incident in China was “medically similar” to the 2016 incidents in Cuba. Some US government sources have blamed these medical symptoms on unspecified “sonic weapon attacks” from a foreign country, aimed at US diplomatic facilities. But Washington has so far refrained from accusing China of having a role in such attacks, either in Cuba or in China itself. Pompeo said on Wednesday that Washington had dispatched a medical team to Guangzhou to inspect American diplomats stationed there. The Chinese government said yesterday that it was probing the incident “in a very responsible manner” and “would protect the lawful rights and interest of foreigners in China”. However, China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, warned that the case in Guangzhou should not be “magnified, complicated or even politicized” by Washington.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 23 May 2018 | Research credit: Nikki P. | Permalink
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with biomedical intelligence, China, News, US, US consulate in Guangzhou, US Department of State