Authorities abroad use phone-cracking tools to install spyware, report says

As tech companies and savvy users make it harder to infect phones remotely with government-grade spyware, repressive governments abroad are using a product widely marketed to American law enforcement agencies to gain physical access to devices and insert monitoring programs, researchers say.

Recent reports have revealed similar practices in Russia and China, and on Monday Amnesty International exposed a series of incidents in Serbia in which activists and journalists found their phones compromised after coming in contact with police, often without being arrested or charged.

In one case, reporter Slaviša Milanov was stopped near the southeastern Serbian town of Pirot by traffic police earlier this year and taken to a station ostensibly for drug and alcohol tests, which he passed. He was told to leave his belongings — including his phone — outside the room where he was questioned, and got them back 2½ hours later when he was released, according to Amnesty. Noting that some settings had been changed, Milanov used a security app to determine that new programs had been installed.

Milanov told The Washington Post local authorities had objected to his articles on public money being spent on luxury cars and construction projects with well-connected contractors. “We have temporarily suspended critical content” because of the breach, he said.

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