Spyware from an Italian company has been used to spy on iPhone and Android users in Italy and Kazakhstan. That’s according to Google and Lookout Threat Lab.
Known as “Hermit,” the spyware targets both Android and Apple devices. The targets of the hacking are from Kazakhstan, Syria, and Italy.
Remember Pegasus the spyware created by NSO group of Israel seems similar to Hermit, sold under the guise of “lawful intercept” to governments and other entities. The spyware vendor is believed to be Italian RCS Lab.
Researchers from Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG) revealed details in a blog post Thursday by TAG researchers Benoit Sevens and Clement Lecigne about campaigns that send a unique link to targets to fake apps impersonating legitimate ones to try to get them to download and install the spyware. None of the fake apps were found on either Apple’s or Google’s respective mobile app stores, however, they said.
TAG is attributing the capabilities to notorious surveillance software vendor RCS Labs, which previously was linked to spyware activity employed by an agent of the Kazakhstan government against domestic targets, and identified by Lookout research.