Security researchers from BlackBerry’s Cylance have discovered that Android and iOS app stores have become home to government-induced espionage malware. According to the company’s latest report, prolific and pervasive government spyware are being spread on Android and iOS application platforms which give us a confirmation that consumers are being misled by technology companies that are making them live in a false sense of security.
Blackberry claims that hundreds of apps have somehow found a way into Apple and Google app stores by breaking into the security defense-line respectively.
Although Google did not react to the report, Apple Inc has reacted by saying that its company’s app store can detect and avoid malware from being published and also can ban untrusted apps on an automated note.
Cylance report takes a dig directly at China’s APT hacking groups, as the report claims as it has over a dozen instances where Chinese hackers have been found spying on their neighboring nations like India, Russia, Mongolia, Nepal and Vietnam with the help of mobile apps. The AI-based Cybersecurity Company also states that hackers from China, probably funded by the government, are hitting industrial targets these days mostly from the US covering oil and gas, chemical, pharma, and defense companies.
And the mobile malware is being spread through click and advertising baits and some via subscription frauds.
As there is a lot of immaturities prevailing in the mobile security market, nations and some state-funded hackers are succeeding in propagating spying malware’s through app stores.
Hope, tech companies like Google and Apple have taken a queue from the report and will strengthen their mobile security measures to weed out malicious apps from their apps stores to the core.
