CloudSek founded the advanced persistent threat Santa-APT, CloudSek is a security firm who was researching on a new growing malware in the black market. What if I told you that the imminent malware was named as Santa Claus Malware?
Santa Claus Malware can do a lot of wrongs if you are one of the victims. The researcher discovered that the company which had rented the server to Santa-APT was actually from South Asia. But researcher didn’t mention the name of the company. It was nevertheless kept in suspense.
On Taking a closer look researcher accomplished to find out how this malware is executing on another computer. It usually creates two folders for storing voice recordings and the other one is for keyloggers data. But these folders are not actually found in every victim’s computer. But we can expect that the developers of Santa Claus malware are working on it to transform the characteristics of this malware.
Capabilities of Santa Claus Malware.
The new coming Santa Claus Malware can steal the file from your system and can create screenshots in your desktop without even requesting you for permission. It can also reach your USB Flash drives and it had some advanced filtration capabilities. The researcher considered that the new Santa Claus malware had managed to store over 120 GB of data and the numbers are increasing very quickly. The Santa malware has been identified at the same time when researchers exposed Bible and Quran apps infected with spying Trojan.
Malware Was Also On Android And Apple Stores
The new Santa Claus app malware is founded on mobile operating system Android and iOS too. But the app in which the malware is detected was still not revealed. Guess what? your phones might be the next victim because the mobile malware had the ability to steal browsing history, Camera records, Call records, SIM Card details etc. Santa Claus Malware can access your phone’s microphone and camera to capture the atmosphere throughout you.
Work In Progress
They also looked at how the malware was storing data and found that for each victim, it creates 2 folders one for storing voice recordings and other for keyloggers data. Though, currently malware doesn’t have these capabilities but it seems the developers are working on it and soon malware will be able to extract data of such nature as well.
Server From South Asia
They also found the server’s location and also the company that has rented the server to Santa-APT, but they didn’t disclose the name of the company, however, the company behind renting this server is based in South Asia.
Victims Of Santa-APT
More than 8000 infected computers and phones are found so far, Researcher also managed to find out the Santa-APT backend panel but the mobile and computer source for entering this malware was still not disclosed, it will be very useful to the users to identify the app or software which contains the Santa Claus malware. But we can expect the source to be disclosed soon.
What You Can Do?
Christmas is one of the best seasons for hackers and cyber criminals to trap innocent users and earn some money so beware while downloading any third-party app. It’s best to download trusted applications from trusted sources. In the meantime be careful while downloading apps this holiday season as this is the most profitable season for the cyber criminals to infect users and earn some bucks.
Hope it was helpful to you. Do send us your comment and you can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ , on LinkedIn or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from, Technology world.
