When it comes to zero-days and spyware, China and North Korea’s hacking teams head up the leaderboard with five 2024 incidents each. Russia had three, and South Korea one; another three were likely the work of APT groups but a specific nation was not pinned down.
You’ve heard about Pegasus spyware for years, now get ready for Paragon. While Paragon spyware is supposed to only be sold to “good guy” governments for law-abiding purposes, new accusations levied by WhatsApp may put it under the same spotlight.
An SDK module used to implement small casino-style mini-games in Android apps is infected with spyware, and is found in at least 101 Android apps available through the Play Store. Based on raw download and install numbers, up to 421 million could be impacted.
Citizen Lab says that the UAE, Hungary and Mexico are “countries of concern” and notes that the QuaDream spyware has been sold to Saudi Arabia and Ghana among other nations. Spyware has at least one zero-click exploit in its arsenal.
Google TAG reported that an exploitation framework making use of multiple zero-days was sold by a Spanish spyware firm for years. Firm says that it is not responsible but there is evidence in the code, including a script that is signed by the company.
Campaign run by a group of state-sponsored hackers appears to have been passing data-siphoning spyware through approved apps in Google Play Store for years.