An Italian surveillance company is tracking people all over the world on a grand scale on behalf of its clients – including in countries with a recent history of corruption and human rights abuses. Its powerful spyware was recently found in Kazakhstan and Romania. Europe’s parliamentarians voice growing concern about an out-of-control surveillance industry and call for it to be regulated.

Although this looks like the real My Vodafone carrier app available in the App Store, it didn't come from the App Store and is not the real application from Vodafone. TAG suspects that a target receives a link to this app in an SMS, after the attacker asks the carrier to disable the target's mobile data connection. The SMS claims that in order to restore mobile data connectivity, the target must install the carrier app and includes a link to download and install this fake app.

Today, alongside Google’s Project Zero, we are detailing capabilities provided by RCS Labs, an Italian vendor that uses a combination of tactics, including atypical drive-by downloads as initial infection vectors to target mobile users on both iOS and Android.

An Italian surveillance company is tracking people all over the world on a grand scale on behalf of its clients – including in countries with a recent history of corruption and human rights abuses. Its powerful spyware was recently found in Kazakhstan and Romania. Europe’s parliamentarians voice growing concern about an out-of-control surveillance industry and call for it to be regulated.

Although this looks like the real My Vodafone carrier app available in the App Store, it didn't come from the App Store and is not the real application from Vodafone. TAG suspects that a target receives a link to this app in an SMS, after the attacker asks the carrier to disable the target's mobile data connection. The SMS claims that in order to restore mobile data connectivity, the target must install the carrier app and includes a link to download and install this fake app.

Today, alongside Google’s Project Zero, we are detailing capabilities provided by RCS Labs, an Italian vendor that uses a combination of tactics, including atypical drive-by downloads as initial infection vectors to target mobile users on both iOS and Android.