According to the report, the Islamic Revolution Guard (IRGC) has developed a number of Surveillance App applications that can be activated through the backdoor and uploaded to Apple, Google and the GitHub application platform in order to monitor and prevent the emergence of new political riots.
The report pointed out that Apple and Google Play Mall on a called Mobogram’s instant messaging application is the Iranian government research and development and monitoring of the spy App. Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of NCRI’s Washington office, said: “The IRGC has targeted western networking technologies and targeted those trying to liberate their country, which is currently conducting a preliminary test of these apps on the Iranian people and, without hurdles, Its next target will be users in other countries. ”
According to analytics firm App Annie, Mobogram ranks 156 on the number of U.S. social networks App downloads in the Apple App Store. Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, a Russian end-to-end encrypted communications software, warned users that “users should avoid downloading Mobograms, which may be a security risk.”
Iran’s smartphone users have turned to Mobogram and other apps after Telegram was temporarily banned during the anti-government protest last December. Most Iranian users use Telegram to communicate, not Twitter or Facebook. The number of Telegram users in Iran is about 40 million, and the number of users outside Iran is about 45 million.
Durov also claimed that the Iranian government had wanted him to help the government use Telegram to monitor users, but he rejected the request. Family members living outside Iran often use Mobogram or other communication apps to connect with relatives living in the country. NCRI claims that those users are likely to be the victims of a large-scale Iranian military surveillance program that the Iranian government is using to monitor opponents and dissenters with malicious code embedded in the App.
WHAT APPS COULD BE VULNERABLE TO IRANIAN SURVEILLANCE?
In addition, according to NCRI, Mobogram is promoting with a “local mall” supported by IRGC, Café Bazaar. Café Bazaar is the imitation of Google’s Play Mall, which has thousands of App applications. Jafarzadeh said Iranian government can use the spy App to find out the user’s phone number, address and other sensitive information because they have access to the information on the user’s SIM card. NCRI believes the Iranian government has developed about 100 apps that embed malicious code, including Mobogram, Hotgram, Wispi and other communications software.
Source: dailymail
