A recently found malware espionage campaign, called Dark Caracal, has affected thousands of people in 20 countries. The malware was discovered in January by two American cybersecurity organizations — Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Lookout. They tracked the source of the malware to a building belonging to the Lebanese national security agency, the General Directorate of General Security (GDGS).
At least since 2012, Dark Caracal has been actively transmitting private information, from call records and audio recordings to documents and photos, of military personnel, activists, journalists and lawyers living in the United States, Canada, Germany, France and Lebanon. This was made possible through trojanized apps, fake versions of applications, including Signal and WhatsApp. Trackers are able to take photos, retrieve location and information and capture audio. So far, no legal action or sanctions have been taken, and it remains unknown if the GDGS activities are still ongoing.
