Researchers uncover latest version of Chinese spyware used to target dissidents
Security researchers believe a newly discovered variant of mobile malware, dubbed xRAT, represents the latest iteration of a sophisticated cyber-espionage tool previously used by the Chinese government against dissidents, according to evidence published by cybersecurity firm LookOut. The first sample of xRAT appeared in April, said Michael Flossman, a security researcher with LookOut, and since then more than 60 unique samples belonging to this same remote access trojan family have been found. RAT is short for remote access trojan, a kind of malicious software program that installs a back door on a device so the attacker can take administrative control. “Initially when we started investigating [xRAT] our attribution suggested the actor behind it was likely Chinese, due to a combination of comments in the code, the types of apps being trojanized, and the location and whois details of command and control infrastructure,” explained Flossman. “Further analysis revealed a strong connection to […]
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