New Delhi, June 23 (IANS): Global cybersecurity firm Trend Micro on Friday announced that it has detected more than 800 applications in Google Play Store embedded with a Trojan Android malware “Xavier”. This malware has been downloaded millions of times till date. “Xavier” steals and leaks a user’s information silently. “These applications range from utility apps such as photo manipulators to wallpaper and ringtone changers. We also provide multi-layered mobile security solutions to protect users from this threat,” Trend Micro said in a statement. Based on data from its “Mobile App Reputation Service”, the team found that Xavier’s stealing and leaking capabilities are difficult to detect because of a self-protect mechanism through the use of methods such as string encryption, internet data encryption and emulator detection. It also has the capability to download and execute other malicious codes from a remote server, which might be an even more dangerous aspect of the malware.
