This Trojan horse, particularly malicious virus, has already contaminated 45,000 smartphones in the world these last six months.
Have you ever received random ads on your smartphone? Suspicion, it could be the XHelper malware that just identified Symantec.
According to the publisher of Norton antivirus, this Trojan has already contaminated 45,000 smartphones in the world in the past six months and continue to grow, with 100 devices every day, including Russia, India and the United States.
NEW RESEARCH: An average of 131 devices are infected each day with this 👻-like app that can hide itself as it completes malicious activity. Get the full details here. https://t.co/jh4NO5Sr2Y
— Symantec (@symantec) October 30, 2019
The malicious application is hiding
Major problem: the infection is irreversible, XHelper continues to work even when deleted, and even when returning to the factory settings of the smartphone. Even more unpleasant, the small software is able to reinstall in the background, without any icon.
“The malicious application can be re-enabled when the device is charging, restarted, or when another application is installed or uninstalled. “
Read also: Huawei, Nokia, Wiko … These smartphones that emit too much electromagnetic waves
As the Futura website indicates , Xhelper is particularly intrusive since it displays advertisements to generate revenue. Contributors to the Reddit blog say they have found a temporary solution: the malware no longer displays ads if all its permissions are disabled.
Before you get there, Symantec gives some tips in its article so that the virus does not implant on your phones.
- Update your phone regularly,
- do not download applications from unknown sites,
- only install applications from trusted sources,
- perform regular backups.
