Experts at the national Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA), said they have uncovered how cybercriminals are taking advantage of legitimate software to distribute malicious application known as Yow-
hatsapp.
According to the experts, the Yowhatsapp is an unofficial version of WhatsApp that is spread through fraudulent ads on “‘vidmate” and “snaptube” applications.
The NITDA experts explained that when Yowhatsapp is downloaded, it deploys an android trojan called Triada. This application requests the users to grant it permission to access SMS Messages and other applications after installation.
On the possible impact, it said that After a user grants this malicious application the permission to access other applications, cyber criminals can then leverage on this malware to enroll victims to paid subscription without their knowledge, as well as steal user access keys that allows the use of a WhatsApp account without the actual client.
Additionally, these criminals can also impersonate the victim to send spam and conduct financial fraud using the stolen keys gotten through the malware.
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