Are you a Reliance Jio user? If yes, it’s definitely for you! You may become prey to hackers anytime. Recently a cybersecurity firm Symantec has traced out a possibility of malware attack on the Reliance Jio users.
Symantec writes in an official Blogspot, “We spotted many classes and constant variables labelled as ‘Jio’. These classes are unimplemented for now but we suspect that the attackers may be planning to target Jio users at a future date.”
Symantec has spotted the malware as Xhelper. Primarily it enters into the smartphones with the help of some app, and attack the private data stored there. However, Reliance Jio users have not been victimised on a large scale. But the cybersecurity firm affirms that soon the malware can pounce on them.
Xhelper is getting installed in the smartphones as an application from an unknown source, and then it becomes invisible that a user cannot uninstall it. There is no such app in Google Playstore. So, Jio Phone users are warned to not install any application from an unknown source to escape the malware attack. Syamntec writes, “None of the samples we analyzed were available on the Google Play Store, and while it is possible that the Xhelper malware is downloaded by users from unknown sources, we believe that may not be the only channel of distribution.”
Xhelper is also getting re-installed if somehow it becomes possible to delete it. Almost 45,000 devices have been attacked with this malware in the last 6 months, a source reports.
Precisely, getting Xhelper installed in a smartphone means the hackers have full access to the smartphone.
The firm advises users to take the following precautions te be safe:
- Keep your software up to date.
- Do not download apps from unfamiliar sites.
- Only install apps from trusted sources.
- Pay close attention to the permissions requested by apps.
- Install a suitable mobile security app, such as Norton or Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile, to protect your device and data.
- Make frequent backups of important data.
