Taking an advantage of the immense craze of the dystopian South Korean horror series Squid Games, cybercriminals at the moment, are targeting people in the name of the trending Netflix show.
What does Stefanko, a Cybersecurity professional, say?
Cybersecurity professional and researcher Lukas Stefanko, who investigates malware at a security firm named ESET, through a tweet announced that a notorious app called ‘Squid Wallpaper 4K HD’, which was available on Google Play Store (now no longer available), was developed by fraudsters to infect Android smartphones with the Joker malware.
Interestingly, the Joker malware has been noticed on Google Play Store earlier as well, however that is the first time that the Squid Game-based app has been used to spread it.
Stefanko said in his post that the malicious app was installed more than 5,000 times before it was caught in and brought down. The app downloads and executes native libraries and even executes malicious apps on the targeted device.
Victims fall prey to costly SMS scam
The cyber researcher additionally warned that the flagged app allowed hackers to hold out “malicious ad-fraud and/or undesirable SMS subscription actions”.
Besides gaining unauthorized entry to one’s bills, the malware additionally starts certain operations without receiving any consent from the user.
Cybercriminals could also sign up affected users for premium services, which can cost them a lot of money.
It is worth noting that anyone downloading the “Squid Game Wallpaper 4K HD” app is said to be falling victim to a costly SMS scam.
200 apps based on the Squid Game
Stefanko asserted in his tweet that at least 200 apps based on Squid Game are to be found on Google Play. The maximum downloaded out of those apps reached a million downloads within 10 days.
“Seems like a great opportunity to make money on in-app ads from one of the most popular TV shows without an official game,” he stated.
Anti-malware protective service to help
Considering how cybercriminals can use the rage to trick humans into falling for such malware, customers would want to be very careful at the same time as putting in any programs on their gadgets.
The best action for Android users is to delete such apps from their gadgets to reduce the probability of having the Joker malware.
In addition, packing your tool with anti-malware can help in protecting the device in the long run.
