Scans tourists' phones by installing malware

[ccc]

Has anyone ever gotten a phone scan on the China border?

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/china- ... h-malware/

[bwv812]

search.php?keywords=spyware

It looks like they may have stopped installing it on tourists' phones in late 2019, but I believe they still scan your phones and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are compromised or they start reinstalling such spyware again.

[ccc]

I just wonder, has anyone gotten malware installed on the China border in the past?

How did you handle it? Anti–spyware app or just a factory reset?

[AreWeThereYet?]

(old news admittedly) When I entered China's Xinjiang province from Kyrgyzstan my phone was scanned by linking it to a black 'box' (a cuboid looking like two large external batteries lumped together). No spyware was installed, something I checked upon returning by giving my phone to the Cyber Sec guys at work (back then I worked in a place where the emphasis on cyber was pretty heightened). Their view was that the cuboid was basically searching through everything stored on the computer to look for 'untowards' things. As for tracking, at the end of the day the Chinese authorities could simply map which phone cells I was in.

[ccc]

Thx a lot, hope they have stopped this procedure and here is a quit good explanation, how it was in 2019:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/7xgame/ ... of-malware

[hipohey963]

Flying via an URC stopover, is it likely that phones/laptops will be searched and/or spyware'd?
Looking to fly both directions via URC to one of the stans. Significant stopover in URC, as there are no other flight options.

If they do search, do they do it in front of you or do they take it to a room and copy the contents?

What about the land borders with other countries? (SEA, Mongolia, Russia)

[Patroclus]

They didn't scan my phone when I arrived from Pakistan three weeks ago.