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NSA Plan to Hack Smartphones Using Google and Samsung App Stores

posted by n1 on Friday May 22 2015, @03:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the swiss-cheese-security dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

According to a story at the Intercept, the National Security Agency and its closest allies planned to hijack data links to Google and Samsung app stores to infect smartphones with spyware, a top-secret document reveals.

As part of a pilot project codenamed IRRITANT HORN, the agencies were developing a method to hack and hijack phone users’ connections to app stores so that they would be able to send malicious “implants” to targeted devices. The implants could then be used to collect data from the phones without their users noticing.

 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2015, @07:39AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2015, @07:39AM (#186352)
    Well, one interesting thing about this is that apparently Google doesn't just roll over and do what the NSA says the way some companies (cough cough.. Microsoft... cough cough.. AT&T... cough cough...) have been shown or alleged to do. If they did then the NSA wouldn't have to resort to what amounts to hacking Google to accomplish this.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2015, @08:06AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2015, @08:06AM (#186365)

    cough cough.. Microsoft... cough cough.. AT&T... cough cough...

    Achoo, achoo, Apple....

  • (Score: 2) by tathra on Friday May 22 2015, @06:28PM

    by tathra (3367) on Friday May 22 2015, @06:28PM (#186584)

    If they did then the NSA wouldn't have to resort to what amounts to hacking Google to accomplish this.

    which, conveniently, is now legal for GCHQ, [soylentnews.org] who is in an intelligence alliance [wikipedia.org] with the NSA, to do.