Google has gotten rid of SmeshApp, the notorious spyware app which was used by Pakistan to extract sensitive information from Indian Army soldiers. The app had first appeared on the Play Store about a year ago and has now been removed after reports about its illicit activities came to light recently.
According to a report, SmeshApp had been developed by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency to infect the smartphones and computers of Indian Army personnel. Once installed, the spyware was able to get access to calls, messages and images stored in a device. It could even track the geo-location of a soldier and remotely record audio and video.
The ISI apparently chose to dupe members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). It identified soft targets such as field-level officers and lured them into downloading the chat app to their phones by setting honeytraps through fake Facebook accounts.
CNN-IBN claims these Pakistani handlers were able to gain crucial data on the movement of troops after the terror attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot earlier this year. All the data collected by SmeshApp apparently got stored in a server located Germany. A Karachi-based man named Sajid Rana had supposedly hosted the information.
Also See: Indian sites prone to Pakistani hacks during big events, cricket matches
The government recently issued a new set of rules for social media interaction to all soldiers. Under the regulations, Indian Army personnel can only use their own name for WhatsApp without giving away their rank or location. The application is supposed to be utilized only for personal chats, with all official information off-limits.