By akademiotoelektronik, 03/04/2023

This WhatsApp clone infects Android smartphones

Revised version of WhatsApp instant messenger secretly injects viruses into Android smartphones.

The alert is launched by the antivirus editor Kaspersky. FMWhatsApp version 16.80.0, a popular WhatsApp instant messaging clone, is a dangerous trojan (trojan). Its secret mission: to sneak other malicious apps (malware) onto your Android smartphone. Some of them force you to subscribe to paid services.

As a reminder, you have three options when it comes to downloading and installing an Android app on your phone:

– The Google Play Store, the official store.

– Alternative stores, like Aptoide.

– Direct download from websites of installation files in APK format.

Even though its nets sometimes let malicious “apps” through, the Google Play Store is supposed to keep your phone as safe as possible. Elsewhere, outside this single official framework, it is a jungle where the worst and the best, the legal and the illegal, the dangerous and the harmless coexist.

Let's face it. Raw APKs and alternative stores are often exploited as crossroads to install paid apps for free. In other cases, downloading an APK file is the only option to install a popular game like Fortnite or to benefit from a revised, corrected and improved edition of an “app”. This is called a “mod” (for modification).

It is in this context of "mods" that FMWhatsApp has carved out a good reputation, before going off the rails in recent days with an eminently dangerous version 16.80.0. Developed without the authorization of WhatsApp and its owner Facebook, FMWhatsApp injects new functions into the famous instant messaging service. But also "malware" in its disastrous incriminated version.

“Use only official instant messengers and download them only from official application stores”, reminds the publisher Kaspersky. “They may have fewer features, but they won't flood you with viruses.”

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