India is Using These 2 Android Spyware to Spy on Pakistani Public and Military

[pakpride00090]

India is Using These 2 Android Spyware to Spy on Pakistani Public and Military

Lookout, a San Franciso-based security firm, recently reported that it has identified two new Android spyware tools designed for cyber

propakistani.pk

Lookout, a San Franciso-based security firm, recently reported that it has identified two new Android spyware tools designed for cyber espionage campaigns in South Asia. These tools were found linked to a pro-India advanced persistent threat group called Confucius.

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According to Lookout, Confucius has been active since 2013 and mainly targets victims in Pakistan and other parts of South Asia.

Both the spyware tools, SunBird and Hornbill, have been camouflaged as legitimate chat applications, such as Fruit Chat, Cucu Chat, and Kako Chat for Android. They are designed to exfiltrate SMS, encrypted messaging app content, geolocation data, and other sensitive information from Android devices.

Lookout says, once the malicious apps are downloaded from third-party app stores, they exfiltrate call logs, contacts, contact details, unique Mobile identification numbers, geolocation, and images on the victims’ phones as well as WhatsApp contents.

Amongst the two, SunBird is a remote access Trojan that has additional capabilities to exfiltrate information about the installed apps, steal browser history and run arbitrary commands with root privileges.


The researchers explained,

SunBird is a fully-featured remote access Trojan that is able to carry out attacker commands on an infected device,” says Kristin Del Rosso, senior security intelligence engineer at Lookout. “On the other hand, Hornbill goes to great lengths not to be detected by a user and is specifically interested in documents stored on a device’s external storage that have the following suffixes: “.doc”, “.pdf”, “.ppt”, “.docx”, “.xlsx”, “.txt.”

Apurva Kumar, staff security intelligence engineer at Lookout detailed,

In the case of Hornbill specifically, links between its developers indicate they all appear to have worked together at a number of Android and iOS app development companies registered and operating in or near Chandigarh, Punjab, India. In 2017, one developer claimed to be working at India’s Defense Research and Development Organization on its LinkedIn profile. Malicious functionality present in SunBird and Hornbill is believed to be derived from commercial surveillance ware developed in India.

This malware has been active since December 2020 and has targeted personnel linked to Pakistan’s military and nuclear authorities as well as Indian election officials in Kashmir.

 

[Salman876]

What we can do?

 

[Vortex]

What we can do?

Changing brain ?

if not possible, then at least learning IT security best practices and applying them.

 

[Dalit]

Highly critical and secretive data, communication and systems should not be stored nor used using regular Operating Systems anyway. It is like attaching your nuke reactor subsystems to a public network and wondering how it got hacked.

 

[El Sidd]

Changing brain ?

if not possible, then at least learning IT security best practices and applying them.

You can apply 99 percent of the best practices. It will still lead to data theft.

Indians are more dedicated in destroying Pakistan than Pakistan's dedication to peace.

 

[Bossman]

They are using Israeli SW so is UAE and some of our so called friends.

 

[Vortex]

You can apply 99 percent of the best practices. It will still lead to data theft.

Indians are more dedicated in destroying Pakistan than Pakistan's dedication to peace.

You have valid point.
But when you start to read and apply the best practices in IT security, you will start, I hope, to understand how IT works and how your data are at risk. It will surely lead to a change in culture.

 

[El Sidd]

You have valid point.
But when you start to read and apply the best practices in IT security, you will start, I hope, to understand how IT works and how your data are at risk. It will surely lead to a change in culture.

It's not culture it's attitude.

The risks associated with cyber space cannot be comprehended in their entirety.

It is afterall a world out there in virtual.

How do you know that you are not Adam Schneider Sanchez who just bought a new Air Humidifier in Perth?

 

[Vortex]

It's not culture it's attitude.

The risks associated with cyber space cannot be comprehended in their entirety.

It is afterall a world out there in virtual.

How do you know that you are not Adam Schneider Sanchez who just bought a new Air Humidifier in Perth?

sorry maybe culture is a faux ami between French and English.
Of course zero risk doesn’t exist but if your get a culture about cyberspace threats and about how to protect your data you will be aware about security risks, yoi will put some security tools in place, you will be able to understand their forces and weaknesses, you will try to find solutions etc. If you are totally clueless, then it’s an open bar with eat as you can formula !

Who is Adam Schneider Sanchez ?

 

[El Sidd]

sorry maybe culture is a faux ami between French and English.
Of course zero risk doesn’t exist but if your get a culture about cyberspace threats and about how to protect your data you will be aware about security risks, yoi will put some security tools in place, you will be able to understand their forces and weaknesses, you will try to find solutions etc. If you are totally clueless, then it’s an open bar with eat as you can formula !

Who is Adam Schneider Sanchez ?

Adam Schneider Sanchez is a stolen identity based on that one article you clicked yesterday.

 

[untitled]

Are these apps even on the google play or amazon store? Why would you even install unfamiliar apps from strange app stores

 

[R Wing]

Are these apps even on the google play or amazon store? Why would you even install unfamiliar apps from strange app stores

Same reason some send classified info to a virtual "person" in exchange for promised nudes........ not everybody is rational all the time

 

[Salman876]

Changing brain ?

if not possible, then at least learning IT security best practices and applying them.

Not enough

 

[Goenitz]

complete ban of smart phone should be implemented... already posted that in UKr-RU war, russians tracked the UKr artillery battery because UKr soldiers using russians app...

 

[xyxmt]

every Pakistani should start their day by sending each other a message to insult and humiliate Indians, be creative, be cruel....let them read what we do all day in Pakistan