A spyware app designed to monitor Kurdish targets attracted more than 1,400 downloads

More than 1,400 people have downloaded a spyware app that, while appearing to deliver news, enables hackers to collect sensitive data about the Kurds, an ethnic community living throughout Iran, Iraq and northern Syria. The espionage campaign involves duping Android smartphone owners into downloading a program that spies use to record phone calls, extract files, take screenshots and gather other information from unwitting victims, according to details published Tuesday by the security vendor ESET. The endeavor marks the latest attempt to undercut the Kurds, an indigenous people embedded in conflicts of the Middle East over the past generation. Kurdish fighters have been active in the fight against the Islamic State group dating back to 2014, aligning with U.S forces while also struggling against the Turkish government. Suspected Iranian hackers also used mobile spyware to monitor Kurdish targets, the security firm Check Point reported in February. The effort that ESET discovered […]

The post A spyware app designed to monitor Kurdish targets attracted more than 1,400 downloads appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading A spyware app designed to monitor Kurdish targets attracted more than 1,400 downloads