'Daam' virus steals call records, reads history from Android phones; central agency issues advisory

Android malware called ‘Daam’ infects mobile phones and hacks into sensitive data. To learn more, read the full story on The Hindu.

An Android malware called 'Daam' that infects mobile phones and hacks into sensitive data like call records, contacts, history and camera has been found to be spreading, the national cyber security agency has said in its latest advisory.

The virus is also capable of "bypassing anti-virus programs and deploying ransomware on the targeted devices", the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team or CERT-In said.

The agency is the federal technology arm to combat cyber attacks and guard cyberspace against phishing and hacking assaults and similar online attacks.

The Android botnet gets distributed through third-party websites or applications downloaded from untrusted/unknown sources, the agency said.

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"Once it is placed in the device, the malware tries to bypass the security check of the device and after a successful attempt, it attempts to steal sensitive data, and permissions such as reading history and bookmarks, killing background processing, and reading call logs etc," the advisory said.

'Daam' is also capable of hacking phone call recordings, contacts, gaining access to camera, modifying device passwords, capturing screenshots, stealing SMS, downloading/uploading files, and transmitting to the C2 (command-and-control) server from the victim's (affected persons) device, the advisory said.