In today’s time, with the increase in the use of smartphones, the incidents of data theft are also increasing rapidly. Hackers are targeting people using different methods. One of these methods is malware, through which hackers steal all the user’s data. A new report related to this has come out. Due to this, new malware ‘Guerrilla’ has been detected, which along with leaking user’s data, increases the battery usage and starts showing continuous ads. This affected Android phones from several countries including India, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand, Russia and the US.
8.9 million Android phones affected
Security firm Trend Micro revealed in its report that around 8.9 million Android phones are affected by Guerrilla malware. This malware is similar to Triada malware, which was detected in the year 2016.
Increases battery usage
The report further states that guerrilla malware greatly increases the usage of the smartphone, due to which the battery starts draining faster. Apart from this, the processing speed of the phone also slows down and users start seeing advertisements continuously.
However, the report did not mention the name or model number of any phone affected by the malware. Let us tell you that this malware was first spotted in the year 2018 in many apps, which were downloaded from Google Play-Store.
Lemon group prepared malware
According to the report of Trend Micro, Guerrilla malware has been prepared by Lemon Group. It steals data by installing other malicious software in the victim user’s phone through the command and control server. At the same time, this malware is also capable of controlling the popular messaging app WhatsApp.
The report states that 55.26 percent and 16.93 percent of smartphones in Asia and North America are affected, respectively. The countries most affected by the malware are Angola, Argentina, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Philippines and the US.
203 malware apps found at the beginning of the year
For your information, let us tell you that earlier this year, the National Cyber Security Agency and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society of Thailand had detected 203 such apps, which were affected by malware.
It was told in the report that these apps were stealing the personal data of the user. Along with this, the banking details of the user were also leaking. Now these mobile apps have been removed from the Google Play Store.
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