China police force ‘spent 150,000 yuan on Trojan horse viruses to monitor smartphones’
A police bureau in Zhejiang province, spent about 150,000 yuan (about HK$190,000) on monitoring devices that install Trojan horse viruses into smartphones, an investigative reporter claims.
A police bureau in Wenzhou, southeast China, has spent about 150,000 yuan (about HK$190,000) on monitoring devices that install Trojan horse viruses into smartphones, an investigative reporter claims.
Liu Hu, a reporter with the Changjiang Times, posted a screenshot on his Sina Weibo page showing a list of the devices bought by the police bureau in Wenzhou Economic Technology Development Zone, Zhejiang province, which had been published on the development's zone's official website on December 15.
The list allegedly included a 49,000 yuan Trojan horse virus for mobile phones and a 100,000 yuan device that injected the virus into phones – both supplied by a Hubei company, Wuhan Hongxin Telecommunication Technologies Co.
The virus targeted illegally unlocked Android phones or iPhones, and could provide real-time monitoring of their calls, text messages and photos, the list suggested.
Liu’s posting was later shared widely on Weibo, but the list can no longer be found on the official Wenzhou website today.
