WHATSAPP and Facebook users have been warned over a rogue messenger app that can steal your texts.
An Android app with a special breed of communications-stealing malware had been let loose on the Google Play Store, according to cyber researchers at Cyfirma.
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While the app has since been removed from the Play Store, it will remain on your Android if you downloaded before it was axed.
In this case, you’ll have to delete the app manually.
The app is called SafeChat – and the reality of it is far from its name.
An Indian hacking group known as ‘Bahamut’ is thought to have injected the app with a variant of spyware which steals texts, calls logs and GPS locations from phones.
Late last year, the same group was connected to using fake VPN apps for Android devices that were also riddled with spyware, ESET reported at the time.
“The threat actor designed the app to interact with other already installed chat applications,” experts wrote in a recent report.
The large pool of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Signal and Viber users have been the primary target.
Experts at Cyfirma haven’t revealed how hackers lured people into downloading SafeChat.
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However, a common ploy is to suggest moving a conversation to a ‘more secure’ platform, BleepingComputer reported.
Cyber experts suspect Bahamut to have been working on behalf of a specific state government in India.
According to Cyfirma, Bahamut targets individuals in South Asia.
But the app could have been downloaded by anyone in the world, which puts folks elsewhere at risk too.
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