Applications infected with malware are not new in themselves. On several occasions we have had to talk about this type of problems in the market of applications of Google However, a couple of days ago both Google Play, and the app store of Apple, AppStore, have been affected by an application that contained a virusA milestone in the history of this last platform, which boasted its good quality system precisely to avoid cases like this.
According to the security company Kaspersky, it would be a virus of the type Trojan This would be found within the Find & Call application, activating after its installation. His job was to collect the data from the contact book and send a text message with a link from download to this same application to the numbers captured. Thus, the infection could spread rapidly, affecting more users and collecting more data from the different phonebooks.
As a Kaspersky security expert comments on his blog the problem lies in the violation of user privacyHowever, there is no need to fear any type of criminal attack, since the objective of this virus is to create Spam messages or messages garbage in order to expand, even though the position of the terminal was also recorded by its GPS All this while the user continued using the application without knowing anything.
And, the process was automatic once the application started, it collected the information in a remote server that was in charge of sending text messages with the numbers from the user's address book. Thus, a known sender was displayed, and those who received this message could trust that it was not some kind of hoax , or they would not dismiss the message as Spam before opening it. But more interesting is knowing who has created this virus.According to the security company's investigation, the developers' website allows you to make donations through the PayPal system to a company under siege in Singapore named We alth Creation Company we alth creation). Presumably the origin of this plot.
Currently, both the application for terminals with operating system Android, and the version for iPhone have been retrieved from their respective app stores The Expert from Kaspersky points out that this type of application infected with malware is hardly surprising coming from Google Play, however, it is the first time that something similar has happened in the five years of operation of the AppStoreAlthough there is no need to be alarmed, both platforms have criteria and security measures to avoid these issues, which makes these types of cases even more prominent when they occur.
The application Find & Call appeared to be a contact managerthat allowed ordering phonebooks. Nothing is further from reality. Let's hope that these types of issues will draw the attention of the application distribution platforms to improve their quality controls even more and prevent the privacy of the user from being the most affected
Images via: SECURELIST
