National Security signals on threats of new malware embedded in WhatsApp and Telegram

The Minister for National Security Albert Kan-Dapaah has alerted the public to the discovery of new malware embedded in WhatsApp and Telegram modifications for android devices.

The Ministry of National Security in a statement addressed to the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, headed by Ursula Owusu-Ekuful stated that a research conducted by Kaspersky, a multinational cybersecurity company revealed that a new malware embedded in WhatsApp and Telegram modifications for Android devices is stealing sensitive information from users.

The malware called ‘CanesSpy’, coded in Arabic and Azerbaijani, according to the researchers can steal sensitive information such as International Mobile Equipment Identity(IMEI), phone number, mobile country code, mobile network code and details about the victim’s contacts and accounts every five(5) minutes.

The researchers also revealed that the modified versions of WhatsApp and Telegram are designed to activate the spyware module when a phone is either switched on or starts charging and subsequently establish contact with a server.

Meanwhile, Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company has filed a lawsuit against three(3) developers in China and Taiwan, for distributing unofficial WhatsApp applications, including HeyMods, that compromised over one million user accounts.

The Minister for National Security further urged the Minister for Communications and Digitalisation to take the necessary intervention on the discovery, given the number of users of the general public on both WhatsApp and Telegram platforms.