Apps Marketed to US Troops Are Shipping Chinese and Russian Code
Experts have warned the same data could aid foreign spies in identifying personnel with access to sensitive sites, map when a facility is least guarded, or surface other compromising details.The stakes are no longer hypothetical. But 76 turned up in all, including code traced back to China, Russia, Israel, India, Germany, and others. Roughly 7 percent of the apps carried third-party code from a nation considered adversarial by the Pentagon.Twelve of the apps contained HMS Core, a Huawei software kit that advertises the ability to map user locations, deliver ads, and store images and video.
- ▪Experts have warned the same data could aid foreign spies in identifying personnel with access to sensitive sites, map when a facility is least guarded, or surface other compromising details.The stakes are no longer hypothetical.
- ▪But 76 turned up in all, including code traced back to China, Russia, Israel, India, Germany, and others.
- ▪Roughly 7 percent of the apps carried third-party code from a nation considered adversarial by the Pentagon.Twelve of the apps contained HMS Core, a Huawei software kit that advertises the ability to map user locations, deliver ads, and sto
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Dell CameronSecurityJul 20, 2026 5:30 AMApps Marketed to US Troops Are Shipping Chinese and Russian CodeA first-of-its-kind analysis found more than one in eight apps built for US service members carried foreign code—some from firms in nations the Pentagon designates as adversaries.Photo-Illustration: Jobanny Cabrera; Getty ImagesCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyA recent examination of hundreds of mobile apps marketed toward US military personnel found more than one in eight contained software built by companies in China, Russia, or other foreign nations, raising fresh concerns that adversary governments could harvest data revealing where service members live, work, and deploy.According to researchers at Purdue University, the US Military Academy…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at WIRED.
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