Security Malware and Antivirus viruses A new infected app has arrived on the Play Store: it is a fake antivirus that installs malware and must be deleted immediately.
NCC Group has discovered the presence of a new infected app on the Play Store that can install malware on your device that can affect current accounts. The virus, known as SharkBot, is believed to be very dangerous.
The spread of banking Trojans in Android environments has grown particularly over the last year, as the NCC Group itself explains. Sharkbot is among the most widespread and dangerous because, independently, it manages to steal the credentials of access data to current accounts and credit cards. For this you need to be more careful and have a special antivirus system to protect your Android device.
Smartphone malware Hidden malware: what is the name of the fake antivirus to be deleted
Downloaded by thousands of users, the fake antivirus can be found on the Play Store as “Antivirus, Super Cleaner“. Published by Zbynek Adamcik, it was last updated last February. Google has already intervened in this regard and removed the infected app, but if by chance you have installed it, it must be deleted immediately.
The virus works in a subtle way and manages to attack the user's private data not only in a hidden way, but in complete autonomy. It is a banking Trojan that remains active in the background and as soon as the unsuspecting user opens the app of his bank, the latter is immediately obscured and replaced by an apparently identical fake application.
At that point, the damage is done: unaware of the presence of the fraudulent app, the user enters his bank details which are thus taken from the application with intentions that endanger the security of the current account.
A peculiar feature of SharkBot is that it can take control of the smartphone if it is granted complete access permissions to the device, which in good faith could be done by thinking of an antivirus that should theoretically clean up the device from any threat. In this way, the malware can independently open the official bank app and make transfers to the current accounts of the scammers.
For this reason, the first advice to defend yourself is to never grant full permissions to apps, especially if they are of dubious origin. Secondly, installing an official antivirus suite, especially if you've fallen into the app trap, may be the best way to protect your smartphone and clean it from any existing threats.