As you might have head, there are protests going on in Hong Kong regarding mainland China’s decision to approve candidates ahead of elections, which many claim makes a mockery out of democracy. China has reportedly banned Instagram from being used in China to block out the photos taken in Hong Kong, but according to new reports, that’s not all they’re doing.
It seems that there are some who are speculating that the Chinese government could be installing spyware on the phones of protesters in Hong Kong. This is done through a fraudulent message sent in WhatsApp, asking users to download an app designed by Code4HK, a group of pro-democracy programmers.
However it turns out that the message was fake because the app was not developed by the group. Instead according to Lacoon, it has been speculated that the link to the app could be a malware sent by the Chinese government to spy on Hong Kong protesters. This is according to Lacoon’s CEO Michael Shaulov who thinks that the “targets of the operation, where the servers are based and the sophistication of the attack, it doesn’t leave much room to the imagination.”
Interestingly enough it also seems that the app can infect the iOS platform as well as Android devices. Given that iOS tends to be thought of as the more “secure” platform due to low reports of malware, this is surprising. Shaulov states, “This is the first time that we have seen such operationally sophisticated iOS malware operational, which is actually developed by a Chinese-speaking entity.”
The specifics of how the malware will get onto an iOS device is unclear, but in any case for those living in Hong Kong and who are receiving these WhatsApp messages, perhaps you might want to steer clear of them for now.
[Image credit – Derek Lam]