A new virus called ‘Agent Smith’ has infected 1.5 crore Android phones in India.
If you’re one of those people who often get lured into downloading free games and other apps from third-party stores on your Android phone, you must be cautious of the ‘Agent Smith’ virus.
- The virus named ‘Agent Smith’ after ‘The Matrix’ character. It infects 2.5 crore android users worldwide.
- Israel-based company Check Point, that makes products for IT security, cloud security, mobile and data security, has revealed the stats about the virus.
- Out of these 2.5 crore users, 1.5 crore infected android virus users are from India alone.
- The virus, Agent Smith was originally downloaded from the widely-used third party app store, 9Apps, targeted mostly at Hindi, Arabic, Russian, Indonesian speaking users.
- The virus makes its way into the phone through free games, adult entertainment apps or photography apps.
- These apps asks for the permission, which most of the users provide while downloading apps. The virus is being used to show fraud advertisements.
- Once Agent Smith is installed in your phone, it starts infecting apps like WhatsApp with malicious virus compromising the security of your phone.
- “The malware currently uses its broad access to the device’s resources to show fraudulent ads for financial gain,” Check Point wrote in their blog.
- In the near future, the virus would steal your banking details, if you are using net-banking through an infected phone.
- How to check if your phone is infected by Agent Smith malware?
- If you’ve suddenly started seeing a lot of ads while using apps, this is the first and foremost sign that your phone’s privacy and security might be at risk.
- You must uninstall the suspicious app, if you are android uer. Also, make sure you use only trusted app stores or Google Play Store to download apps.
By: Abhinav Ranjan, Editorial Desk, DKODING Media
