North Korean government hackers snuck spyware on Android app store

A group of hackers with links to the North Korean regime uploaded Android spyware onto the Google Play app store and were able to trick some people into downloading it, according to cybersecurity firm Lookout. In a report published on Wednesday, and exclusively shared with TechCrunch ahead of time, Lookout details an espionage campaign involving several different samples of an Android spyware it calls KoSpy, which the company attributes with “high confidence” to the North Korean government. At least one of the spyware apps was at some point on Google Play and downloaded more than 10 times, according to a cached snapshot of the app’s page on the official Android app store. Lookout included a screenshot of the page in its report. In the last few years, North Korean hackers have grabbed headlines especially for their daring crypto heists, like the recent theft of around $1.4 billion in Ethereum from crypto exchange Bybit, with the goal of furthering the country’s banned nuclear weapons ... Read full article.