Possible cyber attack on India. Some apps developed by Chinese are stealing sensitive information.

Yesterday, (November 29, 2017) Google has found a Chinese developed app Tizi stealing user’s data from call history to WhatsApp, Facebook profile data. Worst of all, it has potential to take photos in the background without showing any glimpse in the phone’s screen. It can even get your WiFi passwords, send SMS and even can acquire your device’s GPS coordinates. Is it possible? Recently I’ve written a similar article on a bug in iOS which lets app to use phone’s camera and facial recognition feature without the knowledge of the phone owner. Unfortunately, it is the same case. Now for Android. Google classified this app as “Socially Engineered” Spy app. Google in its Security blog’s post explained the issue better.  The app opens few backdoor and somehow gains the access to handle all sensitive information from popular apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype and many more.

Warning from Home Ministry.

An article on ‘India Today’ published today (Nov 30, 2017) says that India’s Union Home Ministry has advised officers and personnel to delete and avoid using certain apps. Exactly the advisory says

As per reliable inputs, a number of android/IOS apps developed by Chinese developers or having Chinese links are reportedly either spyware or other malicious ware. Use of these apps by our force personnel can be detrimental to data security having implications on the force and national security.

There’s lot going behind these warnings. In the end, it’s entirely our responsibility to keep our data safe. This event gives us a direction not to use apps from unknown or untrusted sources/developers no matter how cool the app is. Ref. Be warned if you use Chinese apps such as Weibo, WeChat, others: Home Ministry – India Today