A new virus infecting Android phones via SMS

The smartphone infects many viruses used by hackers to steal or encrypt the personal data of the user, in order to earn money for decryption and data recovery.

A team of ESET researchers has revealed a new ransomware that uses victims' contact lists to spread harmful links via SMS, according to the techradar website.

The virus, Android / Filecoder.C, targets Android phones and has been spreading since mid-July. It relies on a sophisticated and powerful operating system, the RSA1024, which encrypts the data and files of the victim's phone, preventing it from decrypting only. Payment

The ransom virus infiltrates the smartphone via a widespread bad toy on the social platform Reddit as well as on the famous forum XDA Developers. Once the user has clicked on some links, the virus is downloaded directly to the phone.

The virus prevents the user from accessing his phone's data, and then starts sending text messages (SMS) to the victim's contact list numbers containing a malicious link to the ransomware installation file. .

The Filecoder virus differs from other known ransomware, it does not prevent the user from accessing his phone by locking the screen. In addition, no fixed ransom value is defined, but the value of the ransom is estimated based on the value of the data stolen from the victim.