WhatsApp users have been warned about the newly discovered Skygofree malware which can steal your private messages and secretly record conversations.
WhatsApp is used by more than 1.3billion people around the world each month, and is one of the most popular smartphone apps around.
On New Year’s Eve WhatsApp broke its record for the most amount of messages sent in one day, with 75billion messages sent on NYE 2017.
The staggering stats underline the huge amount of people that use WhatsApp each and every day.
And now fans of the Facebook-owned service have been put on alert about a terrifying new strain of malware.
Cybersecurity experts Kaspersky Lab discovered Skygofree and described it as “one of the most powerful spyware tools that we have ever seen”.
The spyware affects Android devices, and is capable of stealing WhatsApp messages via Accessibility Services.
It can also record audio through a smartphone’s microphone when an infected device is in a specified location.
Kaspersky Lab added that the malware has nothing to do with broadcasting giant Sky, or the Sky Go product, service or app.
They said: “The Skygofree Android implant is one of the most powerful spyware tools that we have ever seen for this platform.
“As a result of the long-term development process, there are multiple, exceptional capabilities: usage of multiple exploits for gaining root privileges, a complex payload structure, never-before-seen surveillance features such as recording surrounding audio in specified locations.”
Kaspersky Lab said Skygofree was created at least three years ago, and that the malware has been spread via websites operated by cyber attackers.
The online security experts added that the malware has infected a number of Android devices in Italy, the country they believe it originates from.
The news comes after WhatsApp users were recently warned that a security flaw which could let hackers spy on their conversations.
WhatsApp users have been warned that cyber criminals could spy on chat messages they send in the hugely popular app.
Researchers from Germany’s Ruhr University Bochum unearthed the risk, claiming it can let hackers spy on group chats in WhatsApp.
The experts said anyone that control WhatsApp servers could insert new people into an otherwise private group chat.
They could do this without the permission of administrators who controls access to that conversation.
Speaking to Wired, Paul Rösler – one of the Ruhr University researchers – said: “The confidentiality of the group is broken as soon as the uninvited member can obtain all the new messages and read them.
“If I hear there’s end-to-end encryption for both groups and two-party communications, that means adding of new members should be protected against.
“And if not, the value of encryption is very little.”
Since people can only be added to WhatsApp groups without permission once servers are accessed, that limits the amount of parties who can eavesdrop.
Wired said sophisticated hackers, WhatsApp staffers and governments who legally demand access would be able to take control of WhatsApp servers.
Once someone has infiltrated a conversation, everyone in the chat automatically shares a secret key with that user.
That means they have access to all future messages, but cannot view past ones.
A WhatsApp spokesperson confirmed the researchers’ finding to Wired, but said no one can secretly add a new member to a group conversation.
This is because a notification goes through when a new, unknown member has joined the group.