Have any of these apps been downloaded by you? Get rid of them because your money could be at risk and your pictures could be stolen.
Websites and dubious emails are no longer the only threats; app stores are now a minefield as well. The SparkKitty malware, which infected apps from the App Store and Google Play Store, was found by Kaspersky cybersecurity specialists.
Its ability to steal photos from mobile devices and use optical character recognition (OCR) to extract private cryptocurrency keys from them is concerning, in addition to the fact that anyone can access it.
The popular SparkCat malware has a new variant called SparkKitty that targets mobile devices. This strategy, which blends in with seemingly unremarkable apps that ask to view your photo collection, is simple but effective.
Once on the phone, the malware uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to analyze all of the stored images. They are searching for screenshots that contain private keys, especially those that users create when they create their cryptocurrency wallets, rather than your most intimate images.
However, the threat doesn't end there. Researchers caution that attackers may also have access to private images that could be exploited or used as a form of blackmail in addition to these passwords. If someone gives permission without question, nobody is safe.
The Coin app, which is available through the App Store, and the SOEX app, which was released on the Google Play Store and downloaded over 10,000 times before being taken down, are two of the apps that cybersecurity experts have identified.
Even though these apps have been taken down by the platforms, the threat still exists. You should be cautious about what you install on your phone because SparkKitty might resurface under different names or even outside of authorized stores where regulations are less strict.