7-year Android Malware Campaign Targeted Uyghurs: Report

A long-running surveillance and espionage campaign targeting one of China’s largest ethnic minority groups has been revealed by researchers. Palo Alto Networks discovered the “Scarlet Mimic” group in 2016, which was initially spotted targeting Uyghur and Tibetan rights activists.

Although the Chinese government has long oppressed and spied on these and other minority groups in the country, no direct attribution of this group’s activities to Beijing is currently available. Check Point explained in a new report this week that Scarlet Mimic’s mobile malware dates back to 2015.

“The malware is relatively unsophisticated from a technical standpoint. However, its capabilities allow the attackers to easily steal sensitive data from the infected devices, even perform calls or send an SMS and track their location in real-time,” said Check Point.

“This makes it a powerful and dangerous surveillance tool. This tool also allows audio recording of incoming and outgoing calls, as well as surround recording.”

It has since identified 20 variants of the MobileOrder Android spyware, the most recent of which was discovered in mid-August of this year.

“The malware is relatively unsophisticated from a technical standpoint. However, its capabilities allow the attackers to easily steal se

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