Researchers from SecureList have informed the world about a sophisticated and ground-breaking discovery of a unique Android spyware. Dubbed as Skygofree, the infection breaks the limits and uses tactics that have never been practiced. Even though the spyware was detected in October of last year, the threat was compromising users ever since 2014.
Impressive features of Skygofree Android spyware
Researchers have described quite a number of actions that the spyware is capable of executing. For instance, it can steal conversations from WhatsApp, record audio surroundings thru the microphone and even manipulate Wi-Fi connection. Of course, back in 2014, Skygofree was not a sophisticated threat. Over the course of three years, spyware reached great success by being able to gain full remote control over infected Androids.
The spyware can also steal records, text messages, calendar events, photos, videos and follow your every move. Skygofree is considered one of the most advanced spyware infections around since it once it has infected a mobile phone, the attackers can do basically anything.
In order to find victims, attackers are using fake websites, looking similar to domains of various network operators. Even though you might hope that the activity of the cyber criminals would have already reached an end, sorry to disappoint. The activity of Skygofree does not indicate any signs of giving up. However, the spyware was most active in 2015.
Skygofree targets Italian users
It is speculated that the owners of Skygofree spyware are Italian. They are believed to belong to an IT company. Considering this, a Rome-based technology company called “Negg” is one of the suspects. Italian-owners would also make a lot of sense because Skygofree was detected in computers, belonging to people of this origin. Security researchers indicated that they had never seen a better malware infiltration than the one that Skygofree manages to complete.
Once inside an Android phone, the spyware conceals its main icon and begins background services. The virus also makes sure that its executed actions would not be detected or killed. Also, the hackers behind Skygofree developed this spyware to have exploits for escalation of privileges for root access. Therefore, if an Android operating system becomes infected, the attacker is capable of stealing information from the installed social networking sites, retrieve photos from gallery and monitor location.
Another disturbing fact is that Skygofree might start targeting Windows operating systems in the near future. This is assumed because researchers have managed to find a version of this spyware, specifically designed for Windows OS. Keep your eyes open for suspicious websites, programs or online advertisements.
Source: securelist.com.
