We have already had the opportunity to warn you about applications installed on our smartphone that integrate software allowing the collection of our information. We share with you an analysis of the security company ESET. Researchers discovered a campaign that targets Android system users and has been active since the beginning of 2022.
Concretely, the pirates, who are behind this campaign, usurp the identity of official structures that offer us a VPN service. A tool that many of us want to install because it allows us to strengthen the security of our connections. To remain discreet, hackers do not go through the Play Store but use the name of structures that work in security such as, for example, SecureVPN.
They will create and put online a fake site using this name and will offer us applications allowing us to ensure better security for our telephone. To make us react, they will take advantage of social networks to promote it. Upon arriving on the site, discovering these free applications, many users will not hesitate to install them.
The problem is that once active on the smartphone, the application will recover our list of contacts, our SMS messages, the history of telephone calls but also all the messages exchanged via WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal, Viber or again, Telegram.
In addition to this recovery, the software can also access information such as the list of installed applications or the list of files that are on the external storage. It can also access the precise location or even all the data of our smartphone such as those related to our Internet connection, IP addresses or information from our SIM card.
And so, once they have all this information, the hackers behind this tool will be able to launch attacks. And this could concern the servers of official structures or even that of our employer. It is therefore extremely important to document yourself before taking action to prevent our smartphone from becoming an accomplice of hackers.