Tag Archives: spyware

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Is Windows 11 Spyware? Microsoft Defends Sending User Data to …  Slashdot Source link

The commercial spyware industry has increasingly come under fire for selling powerful surveillance tools to anyone who can pay, from governments to criminals around the world. Across the European Union, details of how spyware has been used to target activists, opposition leaders, lawyers, and journalists in multiple countries have recently touched off scandals and calls for reform. Today, Google’s Threat Analysis Group announced action to block one such hacking tool that targeted desktop… Source link

Google is warning of a sophisticated new spyware campaign that has seen malicious actors steal sensitive data from Android and iOS users in Italy and Kazakhstan. On Thursday, the company’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) shared its findings on RCS Labs, a commercial spyware vendor based out of Italy. On June 16th, security researchers at linked the firm to Hermit, a spyware program believed to have been first deployed in 2019 by Italian authorities as part of an anti-corruption operation…. Source link

A sophisticated spyware campaign is getting the help of internet service providers (ISPs) to trick users into downloading malicious apps, according to research published by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) (via TechCrunch). This corroborates earlier findings from security research group Lookout, which has linked the spyware, dubbed Hermit, to Italian spyware vendor RCS Labs. Lookout says RCS Labs is in the same line of work as NSO Group — the infamous surveillance-for-hire company… Source link

As part of Google’s efforts to track the activities of commercial spyware vendors, the company’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) released a report Thursday on spyware campaigns targeting Android and iOS users. Google TAG researchers Benoit Sevens and Clement Lecigne go into detail about the use of entrepreneurial grade spyware dubbed “Hermit.” This sophisticated spyware tool allows attackers to steal data, private messages and make phone calls. In their report, TAG researchers attributed Hermit… Source link

Milan-based RCS Lab, whose website claims European law enforcement agencies as clients, developed tools to spy on private messages and contacts of the targeted devices, the report said. Google (GOOG)‘s findings on RCS Lab come as European and American regulators weigh potential new rules over the sale and import of spyware. “These vendors are enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools and arming governments that would not be able to develop these capabilities in-house,” Google said.

Security researchers at Lookout recently tied a previously unattributed Android mobile spyware, dubbed Hermit, to Italian software house RCS Lab. Now, Google threat researchers have confirmed much of Lookout’s findings, and are notifying Android users whose devices were compromised by the spyware. Hermit is a commercial spyware known to be used by governments, with victims in Kazakhstan and Italy, according to Lookout and Google. Lookout says it’s also seen the spyware deployed in… Source link

Topline Dozens of apps—including Muslim prayer apps, a speed-trap alert app and a QR-code reader—were removed from the Google Play Store around March 25 after researchers found they included software for secretly collecting user data that was developed by a company with ties to U.S. security agencies, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The Google Play Store reportedly included dozens of apps that secretly harvested user data on behalf … [+] of a Panama-based… Source link

A group of high profile tech companies including Microsoft, Google, Cisco, and VMWare have filed an amicus brief in support of Facebook’s legal action against NSO Group, Microsoft has announced. Facebook-owned WhatsApp sued the spyware vendor last year, alleging that its software was used to hack 1,400 devices via a vulnerability in the messaging service. Other companies listed on the filing include the Internet Association, and Microsoft subsidiaries GitHub and LinkedIn. In response to… Source link