A hijacking has occurred. The National Security Agency (NSA) has hijacked Google Play and other Android app stores. This news comes from a confidential document leaked by Edward Snowden.
Along with the Google Play store, the NSA also targeted Samsung’s app store and UC Browser, which is a popular platform in India and China. As well, the NSA was not alone in doing this hijacking; it was joined in these efforts by five other organizations.
All of the involved organizations, including NSA, are part of a group called the Network Tradecraft Advancement Team (NTAT). The agencies are based around the globe, including in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Why did they target the Android app marketplaces? The reason, in line with the team’s overall objectives, was for surveillance purposes. The team exploits smartphone technology to achieve its purpose.
The top-secret documents that The Intercept later received explain that the Google Play surveillance is part of a project called “IRRITANT HORN.” It is a project in which NSA and the rest of the team have met to discuss during meetings in November of 2011 and February that next year.
As The Intercept explains, the agencies using the spying activities online to “identify smartphone traffic flowing across Internet cables and then to track down smartphone connections to app marketplace servers operated by Samsung and Google.”
The confidential document also explains that the NTAT planned to take texts, emails, call records, photos, and videos. In addition to these various kinds of data, the team also planned to use software to send false information to targeted smartphones to potentially confuse enemies. As for the amount of people who were unknowingly affected by the spying down on the UC Browser, that could potentially be millions of users.
Samsung and Google have yet to comment on the Internet spying of the NTAT.