I’m quite fond of the fact that in our technical day and age, it is becoming more and more common place to ‘Have an App for that!’ Apps make our lives easier, from helping cutting down extraneous tasks to graphic editing. For Android users, many apps are free, made by other users, which can include options such as either ‘Pay to use better options’ or ‘Pay to get rid of ads’.
That being said, an easily downloaded application has become scammers next target. A Toronto Security company has discovered an App called ‘Xhelper’ which is now termed as a malware that is impossible to remove, as it has the ability to reinstall itself and is designed to remain hidden! It even has code to ensure it isn’t deleted when a Factory Reset is prompted, and performs malicious actions such as “showing advertisements to the users, downloading and executing more malicious payloads from its remote server onto the users device”
My advice as a tech user is to research your apps before downloading! Look through those Reviews, weed out the Automated replies, make sure this app is right for you, and if it looks suspicious, DON’T DOWNLOAD!!!! And as an extra layer of protection, or to ensure that you haven’t already succumbed to this malware, install a malware detector.
Stay safe out there my friends!
Things & Stuff 