Electronic surveillance

Government spyware hidden in Google Play store apps

We’ve seen malicious government cyberweapons leaked out of the National Security Agency (NSA) and injected via ransomware, but security researchers recently found government spyware squatting in plain sight, pretending to be harmless vanilla apps on Google’s Play store.

This time around, the malware doesn’t come from the NSA. Rather, it alegedly comes from the Italian government, which apparently purchased it from a company that sells surveillance cameras.

According to Motherboard, this is the first time that security researchers have seen malware produced by the surveillance company, known as eSurv.

It was discovered in a joint investigation carried out by Motherboard and researchers from Security Without Borders – a non-profit that often investigates threats against dissidents and human rights defenders.