Mobile phone malware is rising: Blame spies

Contractors and companies are selling cheap spyware to repressive regimes around the world

Spies are increasingly hacking into the smart phones of political opponents and dissidents around the world, security researchers say, giving them access to data far more sensitive than what most people keep on personal computers.
 
Mobile-security firm Lookout Inc. counted 22 phone-hacking efforts in the first five months of this year that appeared to be government-backed. Most targeted political opponents in developing nations, Lookout said. The company’s researchers identified just two such efforts in all of 2015.
 
The increase is being driven by the proliferation both of low-cost smartphones and of companies selling spyware and hacking tools to