Mobile Phones Security News 2017: Cybersecurity Company Discovers Pegasus Spyware Counterpart on Android Called Chrysaor
Recently, mobile cybersecurity company Lookout and Google have simultaneously revealed the discovery of Chrysaor, a serious spying malware found on some Android units that works much like the Pegasus threat on iOS.
Since the discovery of Pegasus on iOS in August 2016, Lookout reports they have since worked with Google in tracking malware activity on Android devices. They called this malware Chrysaor and it works generally in the same nature as Pegasus.
Google explained through an investigation report this week, "Chrysaor is spyware believed to be created by NSO Group Technologies, specializing in the creation and sale of software and infrastructure for targeted attacks."
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According to the technical analysis ran by Lookout and Google, the Android Pegasus can "exfiltrate targeted data" on commonly used apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook, Viber, Kakao, Twitter, Gmail, Google Chrome, the pre-installed Android browser and its e-mail app.
Chrysaor, like the iOS Pegasus, can remotely control targeted devices by simply using text messages. It can also put the device owner under surveillance by remotely activating the microphone and cameras both on the rear and on the front of the device, keylogging, screenshot capture and disabling the mobile's system updates.
Lookout further explained, "Pegasus for Android is an example of the common feature-set that we see from nation states and nation state-like groups. These groups produce advanced persistent threats (APT) for mobile with the specific goal of tracking a target not only in the physical world, but also the virtual world."
In the same comprehensive technical analysis by Lookout, it is still unknown how the espionage malware gets into an Android device. However, with the Pegasus on iOS, the cybersecurity company has already learned that it infects an Apple mobile device through phishing methods.
However, Google said through its report that, late last year, they identified "a few dozen" devices that might have been infected by the Chrysaor through installing apps that are related to the Pegasus spyware.
"Among the over 1.4 billion devices protected by Verify Apps, we observed fewer than 3 dozen installs of Chrysaor on victim devices," Google further explained. Most of the infected Android devices are from Israel, Georgia, Mexico, and Turkey.
Android users are advised to install apps only from a reputable source like Google Play, make sure Verify Apps function is active, use a strong device passkey, and regularly install software updates.
