Hundreds of thousands of Australian Android users may have downloaded a new form of malware, now lurking on their smartphones.
The malware has been dubbed “Agent Smith” after Hugo Weaving’s character from the film The Matrix.
Cybersecurity outfit Check Point said the malware is spreading at alarming rates, already infecting around 25 million devices worldwide, with many users unaware that the virus is currently on their device.
“Disguised as a Google-related application, the core part of the malware exploits various known Android vulnerabilities and automatically replaces installed apps on the device with malicious versions, without the user’s interaction,” said Check Point.
The malware is currently using its broad access to the device’s resources to show fraudulent ads for financial gain. However it could be used for “far more intrusive and harmful purposes, such as banking credential theft and eavesdropping,” Check Point says.
