Police in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou have admitted to buying malware that allows them to spy on smartphones being used in China in real time.

A post on the website of the Wenzhou Economic and Development Zone showed revealed the Wenzhou police department buying a coding machine that can be used "to plant Trojan programs on jail-broken Android or iPhones". The police also bought malware "to monitor in real time information such as cell phone calls, text messages and photos".

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The news instantly sparked widespread anger among Chinese netizens who flooded social media sites with indignant posts. The news spread so fast, Chinese public security officials were forced to remove the notice from the Wenzhou police website.

Unfortunately for Chinese law enforcement authorities, the page can still be viewed on the Google cache page.

On this page, viewers can read about two separate contracts being awarded to the Wuhan Hongxin Telecommunication Technologies Company by the Wenzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone. Wuhan Hongxin is a tech company known for its affiliation with the Chinese central government.

The unintended revelation of the contracts was probably the result of disclosure rules being implemented by the Chinese government as it aims to become more transparent. The police department of Wenzhou made a mistake of sharing too much information by providing details on what the money was going to be spent on. 

TagsHacking Software, Hacking Software Developement, China Hacking Software Developement, Chinese Government News, Chinese Government Hacking Software Developement, Chinese Government Hacking, Chinese Government Hacking Software