Revealed: The NSA's plan to 'hijack' Android app stores

The NSA hatched a plan that would allow the agency to infect smartphones with malware by hijacking the Google Play and Samsung and the Samsung App Store, according to documents obtained by Edward Snowden.

The documents, dated 2011 and 2012 and published by The Intercept Thursday, outline a plan codenamed "irritant horn". The plan's goal: find ways to exploit the connection between smartphones and app stores to allow the NSA — along with its counterparts in Canada, the U.K, New Zealand and Australia — to inject data-collecting malware into users' phones.