Pakistan Closely Watches Indian Army Activities Using Smeshapp
As neighbouring countries of the subcontinent Pakistan and India continue long time rivalry on the terrain, their battle has now moved on cyber space as well.
The new cyber tool that is being widely employed amidst the army troops of India is an app that works via honey-traps as well as a spam attack through social-networking websites.
According to reporters, the app garnered details about entities using it - these details are geo-location data, messages, e-mails, photographs as well as call history followed with dispatching it all onto certain server based inside Germany and that a man, its hirer, resided inside Karachi, Pakistan.
Of late, CNN-IBN one TV channel of India asserted that it carried out a probe into SmeshApp of Google Cache that is said to be certain messaging and calling application available with Google PlayStore. The probe discovered SmeshApp an Android app as dubious while Pakistani military reportedly used it for spying on officers belonging to Indian military.
Google removed SmeshApp from the Internet giant's PlayStore, an app which was non-chargeable letting its users to send text messages, video messages, photos, and make phone-calls all for free. Nevertheless, the service though non-chargeable, required the app users to provide contact lists, camera and media gallery (films and graphics) permissions, and current location. Hackread.com posted this online dated March 20, 2016.
A month ago during February this year (2016), officers of the Indian Army cautioned about three apps namely Line, SmeshApp and WeChat that when loaded onto the army personnel's smart-phones could gather excessive information. Anybody could upload one fresh application having some other name, over time.
Thus, with the conclusion of the TV channel's probe, Google intervened 15th March, 2016 to eliminate SmeshApp that was all the while on its authorized PlayStore.
Certainly, in case the ISI of Pakistan alternatively any other entity attempts at garnering information on Indian officers, SmeshApp can be given another brand name before including it in Google's PlayStore. Therefore, Indian army employees can remain safe only by foregoing installation of unfamiliar apps while just use the popular tools such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Signal etc.
ยป SPAMfighter News - 3/28/2016
