{"id":17972,"date":"2022-07-12T07:14:10","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T07:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google"},"modified":"2022-07-12T07:59:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T07:59:48","slug":"italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google","title":{"rendered":"Italian spyware hacks Apple, Android phones \u2013 Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>An Italian company\u2019s hacking tools were used to spy on Apple and Android smartphones in Italy and Kazakhstan, Alphabet Inc\u2019s Google said in a report on Thursday.
\nMilan-based RCS Lab, whose website claims European law enforcement agencies as clients, developed tools to spy on private messages and contacts of the targeted devices, the report said.
\nEuropean and American regulators have been weighing potential new rules over the sale and import of spyware. \u201cThese vendors are enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools and arming governments that would not be able to develop these capabilities in-house,\u201d Google said.
\nThe governments of Italy and Kazakhstan did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An Apple spokesperson said the company had revoked all known accounts and certificates associated with this hacking campaign.
\nRCS Lab said its products and services comply with European rules and help law enforcement agencies investigate crimes. \u201cRCS Lab personnel are not exposed, nor participate in any activities conducted by the relevant customers,\u201d it told Reuters in an email, adding it condemned any abuse of its products.<\/p>\n

Google said it had taken steps to protect users of its Android operating system and alerted them about the spyware. The global industry making spyware for governments has been growing, with more companies developing interception tools for law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Anti-surveillance activists accuse them of aiding governments that in some cases use such tools to crack down on human rights and civil rights. The industry came under a global spotlight when the Israeli surveillance firm NSO\u2019s Pegasus spyware was in recent years found to have been used by multiple governments to spy on journalists, activists, and dissidents.<\/p>\n

While RCS Lab\u2019s tool may not be as stealthy as Pegasus, it can still read messages and view passwords, said Bill Marczak, a security researcher with digital watchdog Citizen Lab.
\n\u201cThis shows that even though these devices are ubiquitous, there\u2019s still a long way to go in securing them against these powerful attacks,\u201d he added.
\nOn its website, RCS Lab describes itself as a maker of \u201clawful interception\u201d technologies and services including voice, data collection and \u201ctracking systems.
\n\u201d It says it handles 10,000 intercepted targets daily in Europe alone.
\nGoogle researchers found RCS Lab had previously collaborated with the controversial, defunct Italian spy firm Hacking Team, which had similarly created surveillance software for foreign governments to tap into phones and computers.
\nHacking Team went bust after it became a victim of a major hack in 2015 that led to a disclosure of numerous internal documents. In some cases, Google said it believed hackers using RCS spyware worked with the target\u2019s internet service provider, which suggests they had ties to government-backed actors, said Billy Leonard, a senior researcher at Google.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. An Italian company\u2019s hacking tools were used to spy on Apple and Android smartphones in Italy and Kazakhstan, Alphabet Inc\u2019s Google said in a report on Thursday. Milan-based RCS Lab, whose website claims European law enforcement agencies as clients, developed tools to spy on private messages and contacts of the targeted devices, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":17971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,245,1863,241],"class_list":["post-17972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-google","tag-mauritius"],"yoast_head":"\nItalian spyware hacks Apple, Android phones \u2013 Google - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An Italian company\u2019s hacking tools were used to spy on Apple and Android smartphones in Italy and Kazakhstan, Alphabet I ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Italian spyware hacks Apple, Android phones \u2013 Google\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An Italian company\u2019s hacking tools were used to spy on Apple and Android smartphones in Italy and Kazakhstan, Alphabet I ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-12T07:14:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-12T07:59:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_5-62cd29dce82ca.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"657\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Italian spyware hacks Apple, Android phones \u2013 Google\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-12T07:14:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-12T07:59:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google\"},\"wordCount\":475,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_5-62cd29dce82ca.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Google\",\"Mauritius\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/italian-spyware-hacks-apple-android-phones-google\",\"name\":\"Italian spyware hacks Apple, Android phones \u2013 Google - 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