Security Affairs

APRIL 8, 2025

Its value stems from WhatsApp’s massive user base and the potential for covert access to private chats, media, and device-level control. The hacking campaign targeted 90 users and was disrupted in December, WhatsApp immediately alerted targeted users of a possible compromise of their devices.

Spyware 114

Spyware Media Hacking Surveillance 114

Security Affairs

APRIL 17, 2025

Processing an audio stream in a maliciously crafted media file may result in code execution. However, the limited, targeted nature of these attacks against iOS users suggests that commercial surveillance vendors or a nation-state actor likely exploited the flaws.

Surveillance 116

Surveillance Media Authentication Hacking 116

CyberSecurity Insiders

JULY 22, 2021

Chine Foreign Ministry has issued a public statement condemning the distribution and usage of Pegasus Spyware surveillance software by various countries. It has also accused United States & NATO for circulating misinformation that the Chinese intelligence was funding hacking groups to launch cyber attacks on the west.

Surveillance 145

Surveillance Spyware Software Government 145

Schneier on Security

JUNE 12, 2020

This is a weird story : Hernandez was able to evade capture for so long because he used Tails, a version of Linux designed for users at high risk of surveillance and which routes all inbound and outbound connections through the open-source Tor network to anonymize it. I'm fine with the FBI using vulnerabilities: lawful hacking , it's called.

Surveillance 343

Surveillance Accountability Hacking Media 343

Security Affairs

AUGUST 6, 2022

Greek intelligence admitted it had spied on a journalist, while citizens ask the government to reveal the use of surveillance malware. The head of the Greek intelligence told a parliamentary committee that they had spied on a journalist with surveillance malware , Reuters reported citing two sources present. ” reported Reuters.

Surveillance 123

Surveillance Malware Spyware Government 123

Security Affairs

DECEMBER 27, 2019

Authorities in Thailand are investigating a cyber attack that resulted in the broadcast of surveillance video from inside a prison in the country’s south. Narat Sawettanan ordered the prison to turn off the surveillance camera system and investigate the incident. Iran, hacking). ” reported the BangkokPost.

Surveillance 97

Surveillance Hacking Advertising IoT 97

Schneier on Security

JUNE 23, 2021

Mollitiam is also currently marketing a tool that it claims enables “mass surveillance of digital profiles and identities” across social media and the dark web.

Manufacturing 293

Manufacturing Spyware Surveillance Marketing 293

Security Affairs

AUGUST 12, 2019

The FBI is searching for contractors to monitor social media for potential threats, the announcement raises concerns for user privacy. The abuse of social media passwords for malicious purpose is quite common, for this reason, the FBI is searching for contractors to monitor them. SecurityAffairs – social media, FBI).

Media 111

Media Surveillance Advertising Passwords 111

Security Affairs

APRIL 8, 2020

In October 2019, WhatsApp sued the Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group accusing it of carrying out malicious attacks against its users. ” reported Motherboard, the media outlet that disclosed the story. According to the NSO CEO, Facebook was interested in improving surveillance capabilities on iOS devices of the Onavo Protect.

Surveillance 136

Surveillance Spyware Advertising Government 136

Security Affairs

DECEMBER 21, 2020

Tens of Al Jazeera employees were targeted in a cyber espionage campaign leveraging a zero-click iOS zero-day vulnerability to hack their iPhones. Researchers from Citizen Lab reported that at least 36 Al Jazeera employees were targeted in a cyber espionage campaign leveraging a zero-click iOS zero-day vulnerability to hack their iPhones.

Hacking 141

Hacking Surveillance Spyware Government 141

Malwarebytes

APRIL 3, 2025

According to our friends at 404 Media , several users reported receiving information that came from another tracker, not their own. One woman who spoke to 404 Media could see the location address where the random children were, as well as their name and the last time the location was updated. No hacking was needed here.

Mobile 97

Mobile Media Surveillance Technology 97

Security Affairs

APRIL 5, 2025

Call metadata can enable real-time surveillance if misused. Recently, media reported that a China-linked cyber espionage group is targeting several telecom companies demonstrating that call data may be valuable to threat actors. The issue likely affected most Verizon Wireless users, as the service is often enabled by default.

Wireless 103

Wireless Surveillance Risk Media 103

SC Magazine

MARCH 10, 2021

A hacking collective compromised roughly 150,000 internet-connected surveillance cameras from Verkada, Inc., Hacktivist Tillie Kottmann is reportedly among those asserting responsibility for the incident, telling Bloomberg that their act helped expose the security holes of modern-day surveillance platforms.

Surveillance 129

Surveillance IoT Accountability Passwords 129

Security Affairs

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

Iran-linked APT group Domestic Kitten, also tracked as APT-C-50, has been conducting widespread surveillance targeting over 1,000 individuals. Both groups have conducted long-running cyber-attacks and intrusive surveillance campaigns, which target both individuals’ mobile devices and personal computers.” Pierluigi Paganini.

Surveillance 113

Surveillance Mobile Malware Cyber Attacks 113

Security Affairs

MARCH 19, 2025

The hacking campaign targeted 90 users and was disrupted in December, WhatsApp immediately alerted targeted users of a possible compromise of their devices. The Meta-owned company linked the hacking campaign to Paragon, an Israeli commercial surveillance vendor acquired by AE Industrial Partners for $900 million in December 2024.

Spyware 94

Spyware Hacking Surveillance Media 94

Security Affairs

APRIL 17, 2023

The Israeli surveillance firm QuaDream is allegedly shutting down its operations after Citizen Lab and Microsoft uncovered their spyware. Last week Citizen Lab researchers reported that at least five civil society members were victims of spyware and exploits developed by the Israeli surveillance firm QuaDream. and 14.4.2,

Surveillance 98

Surveillance Spyware Education Media 98

Security Affairs

MARCH 13, 2025

North Korea-linked threat actor ScarCruft (aka APT37 , Reaper, and Group123) is behind a previously undetected Android surveillance tool namedKoSpythat was used to target Korean and English-speaking users. Cyber attacks conducted by the APT37 group mainly targeted government, defense, military,and media organizations in South Korea.

Spyware 77

Spyware Surveillance Encryption Malware 77

Security Affairs

APRIL 26, 2022

An interesting article published by The Intercept reveals the secretive business of a US surveillance firm named Anomaly Six. While Russia was invading Ukraine in February, two unknown surveillance startups, Anomaly Six and Zignal Labs joined forces to provide powerful surveillance services.

Surveillance 98

Surveillance Mobile Government Media 98

Security Affairs

MARCH 3, 2025

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: uvcvideo: Skip parsing frames of type UVC_VS_UNDEFINED in uvc_parse_format This can lead to out of bounds writes since frames of this type were not taken into account when calculating the size of the frames buffer in uvc_parse_streaming. reads the advisory.

Hacking 66

Hacking Spyware Technology Surveillance 66

Security Affairs

DECEMBER 30, 2019

The United Arab Emirates denied reports that the popular mobile app ToTok was used as part of a government massive surveillance program. According to a report recently published by the New York Times , the popular app ToTok was used by the UAE government as a surveillance tool. reads the analysis published by Wardle.

Surveillance 95

Surveillance Government Telecommunications Advertising 95

Security Affairs

APRIL 12, 2023

At least five members of civil society worldwide have been targeted with spyware and exploits developed by surveillance firm QuaDream. Citizen Lab researchers reported that at least five civil society members were victims of spyware and exploits developed by the Israeli surveillance firm QuaDream. ” concludes Citizen Lab.

Spyware 98

Spyware Surveillance Malware Government 98

Krebs on Security

MARCH 22, 2021

An ad for RedTorch’s “Cheetah” counter-surveillance tech. ” Frigg promises to include “elements that stems [sic] from major data hacks of known systems like Ashley Madison, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Fling.com, AdultFriendFinder and hundreds more. Last month, the U.S.

Surveillance 325

Surveillance Computers and Electronics Internet Internet 325

Security Affairs

APRIL 18, 2025

Processing an audio stream in a maliciously crafted media file may result in code execution. However, the limited, targeted nature of these attacks against iOS users suggests that commercial surveillance vendors or a nation-state actor likely exploited the flaws. As usual, Apple has not shared technical details about the attacks.

Authentication 101

Authentication Surveillance Passwords Media 101

Security Affairs

NOVEMBER 28, 2024

“To clear up some misleading media reports, here is what we’re currently seeing, much of which we believe is different from what is being seen by other providers.” The hacking campaign, called Salt Typhoon by investigators, hasn’t previously been publicly disclosed and is the latest in a series of incursions that U.S.

Mobile 114

Mobile Government Telecommunications Internet 114

Security Affairs

JUNE 17, 2022

Experts uncovered an enterprise-grade surveillance malware dubbed Hermit used to target individuals in Kazakhstan, Syria, and Italy since 2019. Lookout Threat Lab researchers uncovered enterprise-grade Android surveillance spyware, named Hermit, used by the government of Kazakhstan to track individuals within the country.

Spyware 105

Spyware Surveillance Telecommunications Mobile 105

Malwarebytes

MARCH 12, 2021

Hackers were able to gain access to camera feeds from Verkada, a tech company that specializes in video security and physical access control, to demonstrate how prevalent surveillance is, reports say. Swiss hacker and member of the hacking collective “APT-69420 Arson Cats,” Tillie Kottmann, claimed credit for the Verkada hack.

Hacking 108

Hacking Surveillance Computers and Electronics Accountability 108

Security Affairs

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

Lookout researchers discovered two long-running surveillance campaigns targeting the ethnic minority Uyghurs. Researchers from mobile security firm Lookout uncovered two long-running surveillance campaigns targeting the Uyghurs minority. List of installed packages. Call logs and geocoded location associated with the call.

Surveillance 98

Surveillance Spyware Malware Mobile 98

Security Affairs

MAY 1, 2023

Researchers at the Lookout Threat Lab have discovered a new Android surveillance spyware, dubbed BouldSpy, that was used by the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FARAJA). However, much of the victim data points to its broader usage, which indicates targeted surveillance efforts towards minorities within Iran.”

Surveillance 98

Surveillance Malware Spyware Accountability 98

WIRED Threat Level

JANUARY 9, 2020

Catch up on the most important news from today in two minutes or less.

Surveillance 75

Surveillance Media Hacking 75

Security Affairs

JANUARY 10, 2024

Threat actors hacked the X account of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and used it to publish the fake news on the Bitcoin ETF approval. “The approved Bitcoin ETFs will be subject to ongoing surveillance and compliance measures to ensure continued investor protection.” ” Gensler wrote.

Accountability 127

Accountability Hacking Cryptocurrency Surveillance 127

Security Affairs

APRIL 1, 2023

Five of the issues added by CISA to its catalog are part of the exploits used by surveillance vendors to target mobile devices with their commercial spyware: CVE-2021-30900 – Apple iOS, iPadOS, and macOS Out-of-Bounds Write Vulnerability.

Spyware 98

Spyware Surveillance Mobile Education 98

Security Affairs

JUNE 20, 2020

Malicious Chrome browser extensions were employed in a surveillance campaign on a large scale, millions of users potentially impacted. According to Awake Security, the extensions were downloaded 33 million times and they were part of a massive surveillance campaign that was aided by the internet domain registrar CommuniGal Communication Ltd.

Surveillance 144

Surveillance Internet Internet Advertising 144

Security Affairs

JULY 19, 2021

Pegasus Project investigation into the leak of 50,000 phone numbers of potential surveillance targets revealed the abuse of NSO Group’s spyware. Pegasus Project is the name of a large-scale investigation into the leak of 50,000 phone numbers of potential surveillance targets that revealed the abuse of NSO Group’s spyware.

Spyware 129

Spyware Government Surveillance Media 129

Security Affairs

JANUARY 29, 2025

The vulnerability is a privilege escalation vulnerability that impacts the Core Media framework. The Apple Core Media framework supports multimedia tasks like playback, recording, and manipulation of audio and video on iOS and macOS devices. A malicious application may be able to elevate privileges.

Spyware 58

Spyware Surveillance Media Hacking 58

Security Affairs

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

Lajos Kosa, chair of the Parliament’s Defense and Law Enforcement Committee, confirmed that Hungary is one of the clients of the Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group and that it bought and used the controversial Pegasus spyware. According to Kosa, the use of surveillance software was authorized by a judge or the Minister of Justice.

Spyware 116

Spyware Surveillance Media Government 116

Security Affairs

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

A joint investigation conducted by Access Now and the Citizen Lab revealed that the journalist, who is at odds with the Russian government, was infected with the surveillance software. Timchenko is co-founder, CEO, and publisher of Meduza, a Russian independent media outlet exiled in Europe. ” reported Citizen Lab.

Spyware 130

Spyware Surveillance Media Government 130

Security Affairs

DECEMBER 5, 2018

The email system at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the Republican Party’s campaigning arm, was hacked. “The House GOP campaign arm suffered a major hack during the 2018 midterm campaigns, exposing thousands of sensitive emails to an outside intruder, according to three senior party officials.”

Accountability 107

Accountability Hacking Advertising Surveillance 107