Hermit spyware is dangerous for Android and iOS: Google

Google has started giving notifications to all Android and iOS global users for the new Hermit spyware attacks in Kazakhstan and Italy. The company states that the new Spyware attack is targeting the people of different countries. The name of this Spyware is Hermit Government Grade Spyware.

According to the latest report, Hermit Government Grade spyware use Government official to target the victims in the different countries and works on several modules. Apart from, Kazakhstan and Italy Hermit spyware is also spotted in Northern Syria. Hermit spyware is targeting iOS as well as Android users and its app for iOS carries six different harmful vulnerabilities two were unknown and were discovered recently.

Lookout and Working:-

Hermit spyware use government official to operate and catch the victim in their traps. the several modules allow it to collect and control different types of victim information or data from the victim’s device such as:-

Calls logs, Photos, Emails, Messages, and Device location and redirect and record the ambient audio and phone calls.

A harmful link is sent to the target user via “TEXT MESSAGE” for downloading the harmful applications from unknown sources. Google stated that it had notified all the infected users of Android and updated the Google Play Protect for other Andriod users which will now stop the harmful app from running in the background.

“Installing the downloaded APK requires the victim to enable installation of applications from unknown sources. Although the applications were never available in Google Play, we have notified the Android users of infected devices and implemented changes in Google Play Protect to protect all users.” wrote Google.

A recent report says that Hermit used the government officials for cutting the mobile data service from the network provider and then said to install the harmful app for restoring the data. Below you can check a screenshot of the app that prompts users to tap on the corresponding apps to fix their current app account-related issues and then begin an unknown background process to install and occupy an important pieces of information as mentioned above.

Source – Google