Hackers can secretly snap photos of victims and record their conservations using terrifying ‘spyware’ which turns smartphones into surveillance devices, security researchers have warned.
Cyber-sleuths have issued an urgent warning about super-powerful software which lets creepy hi-tech heavy breathers rummage through people’s WhatsApp messages and secretly snoop on their lives.
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The malware is called Skygofree and features capabilities which are ‘previously unseen in the wild’, according to experts from Kaspersky Lab.
It appears to have been designed by a shadowy Italian surveillance firm, who have been working the software since 2015.
Skygofree affects Android phones and is spread through fake webpages which ‘mimic the sites of mobile operators’.
More: UK
So far, everyone that’s been infected by the malware has been Italian.
Kaspersky wrote: ‘The Skygofree Android implant is one of the most powerful spyware tools that we have ever seen for this platform.’
It added: ‘The implant’s functionality has been improving and remarkable new features implemented, such as the ability to record audio surroundings via the microphone when an infected device is in a specified location; the stealing of WhatsApp messages via Accessibility Services; and the ability to connect an infected device to Wi-Fi networks controlled by cybercriminals.’
The spyware can also take photos of people through their device’s front-facing camera.
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