Spyware Firms Targeting Windows, Android, and iOS Warns Meta

• Meta Platforms is taking action against networks associated with eight spyware firms targeting Android, iOS, and Windows systems.
• Meta’s Q4 2023 Adversarial Threat Report revealed details about the spyware to combat the misuse of associated technologies.

Meta has sent out alerts about eight spyware firms from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Italy, and Spain running surveillance-for-hire operations against targets using iOS, Android, and Windows systems. Meta’s warnings were sent out as a part of the company’s Adversarial Threat Report for the last quarter of 2023.

According to Meta’s report, the companies RCS Labs, Cy4Gate/ELT Group, Variston IT, IPS Intelligence, Protect Electronic Systems, TrueL IT, Mollitiam Industries, and Negg Group were accessing and collecting device data and information from screenshots, cameras, microphones, contacts, apps, SMS and more. Meta has also alleged data scraping, phishing, and social engineering activities on various social media platforms.

See More: Roundcube Vulnerabilities Exploited by Russian Hackers to Attack More Than 80 Organizations

Further, Meta has removed over 2,000 Instagram and Facebook accounts and pages in Ukrainian, Chinese, and Myanmar networks displaying such suspicious activity. The pages were being used to spread disinformation and propaganda with geopolitical implications. Consequently, Meta has set up VoIP memory isolation for WhatsApp and Control Flow Integrity (CFI) on Messenger for Android as countermeasures.

The development follows an agreement between the U.S. government and tech companies to create controls for commercial spyware and its potential for abuse. It highlights the need for appropriate measures against spyware to exploit vulnerabilities for phishing campaigns and the delivery of malicious payloads against sensitive targets.

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