Researchers have uncovered two pieces of mobile malware appearing to be used by the Chinese government to keep a close eye on pro-democracy protesters.
In the days after protests started, protesters started receiving messages on their Android phones through WhatsApp that purported to come from a group of activist coders called “Code4HK”, and it contained a link that allegedly led to an app designed to help coordinate the protests.
Researchers at Lacoon Mobile Security have analyzed the app and determined that it’s actually a mobile remote access Trojan (mRAT) that’s designed to collect various types of information from infected devices. The malware is designed to harvest address books, SMS messages, call logs, location, media files, emails, browser history, and information on the infected device, including its ID, CPU frequency, memory and network data.
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