• This joint investigation with First Department, a legal assistance organization, found spyware covertly implanted on a phone returned to a Russian programmer accused of sending money to Ukraine after he was released from custody.
• He describes being subjected to beatings and an intense effort to recruit him as an informant for the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
• Our analysis finds that the spyware placed on his device allows the operator to track a target device’s location, record phone calls, keystrokes, and read messages from encrypted messaging apps, among other capabilities.
• The spyware bears many similarities to the Monokle family of spyware, previously reported on by Lookout Mobile Security, which they attribute to the “Special Technology Center,” a contractor to the Russian government.
• Our analysis also finds certain differences from previously-reported samples of Monokle spyware, suggesting that it is either an updated version of Monokle or new software created by reusing much of the same code.