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Chinese authorities are using a new tool to hack seized phones and extract data
Researchers warned that Chinese residents, and visitors to China, should be aware of the tool's existence and the risks it poses.
Security researchers say Chinese authorities are using a new type of malware to extract data from seized phones, allowing them to obtain text messages — including from chat apps such as Signal — images, location histories, audio recordings, contacts, and more. I think anybody who’s traveling in the region needs to be aware that the device that they bring into the country could very well be confiscated and anything that’s on it could be collected,” Kristina Balaam, a researcher at Lookout who analyzed the malware, told TechCrunch ahead of the report’s release. Police do not need sophisticated techniques to use Massistant, such as using zero-days — flaws in software or hardware that have not yet been disclosed to the vendor — as “people just hand over their phones,” said Balaam, based on what she’s read on those Chinese forums.
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