NYT 12/23/2019 on the ToTok spying app and DarkMatter:
------
WASHINGTON — It is billed as an easy and secure way to chat by video or
text message with friends and family, even in a country that has
restricted popular messaging services like WhatsApp and Skype.
But the service, ToTok, is actually a spying tool, according to American
officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment and a New
York Times investigation into the app and its developers. It is used by
the government of the United Arab Emirates to try to track every
conversation, movement, relationship, appointment, sound and image of
those who install it on their phones....
A technical analysis and interviews with computer security experts
showed that the firm behind ToTok, Breej Holding, is most likely a front
company affiliated with DarkMatter, an Abu Dhabi-based cyberintelligence
and hacking firm where Emirati intelligence officials, former National
Security Agency employees and former Israeli military intelligence
operatives work. DarkMatter is under F.B.I. investigation, according to
former employees and law enforcement officials, for possible
cybercrimes. The American intelligence assessment and the technical
analysis also linked ToTok to Pax AI, an Abu Dhabi-based data mining
firm that appears to be tied to DarkMatter.
------
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/us/politics/totok-app-uae.html
_______________________________________________
dev-security-policy mailing list
dev-security-policy@lists.mozilla.org
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-security-policy
