Koreans hacked, blackmailed by 250-plus fake mobile apps

Hackers have concealed spyware in more than 250 seemingly harmless Android and iOS apps in Korea.

The malicious apps are of all shapes and sizes: social media, dating, cloud file services, even car services. They mimic brands with innocuous names and cute and professional-looking logos. They sport plenty of five-star reviews. In other words, they’re quite easy to mistake as legitimate, until after you’ve waived all your personal data protections.

It’s not just that these apps wantonly steal personal data from users, though. As researchers from Zimperium warn, in some cases, the hackers behind them upgrade infections into hands-on attacks, which, in this case, means personally blackmailing victims using highly personal information they might have lost control over.

Read more at Dark Reading