A malicious Android app that displays advertisements and facilitates the download of additional malicious apps has infected over 45,000 devices in six months.
Researchers at Symantec observed a surge in detections of the Xhelper app, which has mainly been targeting users in the US, India, and Russia.
This annoying app, which bombards infected devices with pop-up advertisements, is tricky to find because it has been designed to not appear on the system’s launcher.
In addition to playing an irritating game of hide and seek, Xhelper has proved to be more tenacious than a 5-year-old in a candy store by repeatedly reinstalling itself on devices from which it’s been removed and even on devices that have been restored to their factory settings.
By Sarah Coble
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