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Police in US, Europe raid homes of supersnoop Droidjack RAT suspects

Users, not makers are target of cop crackdown

Police across Europe have raided homes of suspected users of Droidjack, a strain of Android malware.

Cops in the US, UK, Germany, France, Belgium and Switzerland were all involved in the operation against Droidjack users. Details are so far sketchy and no arrests have been reported.

DroidJack is a remote access Trojan which is available for sale on underground forums for around $200. The malware can be used to stalk someone’s activity and movements, for example by jealous partners or criminals.

The software facilitates the covert recording of private conversations as well as snooping on emails and text messages, as well as the tracking of users’ physical location, as explained in a blog post by security firm ESET here. The malware might also be abused in banking fraud. It seems that users of Droidjack – rather than the coders who developed the malign operation – are being targeted by the police operation.

In a statement, Europol said it was supporting the police task force. “Europol supported the investigation by providing analytical support and by facilitating information exchange in the framework of the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce, hosted at Europol's European Cybercrime Centre in The Hague,” it said.

Separately, threat intelligence firm Recorded Future recently released a report that identified a rising trend of Iranian hackers targeting Android systems with Droidjack and Androrat. Both mobile malware strains provide the ability to intercept SMS messages, contacts, call logs, browser history, and user credentials on visited websites. The malware can also intercept data from phone features like the microphone or camera.®

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