HomeTechnologyiPhone users beware, these apps could be stealing your data

iPhone users beware, these apps could be stealing your data

This malware works by sneaking into your phone's gallery and stealing images, it looks for things like cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases, passwords, or even private messages from screenshots.

February 06, 2025 / 12:50 IST
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iPhone
iPhone

A new malware called SparkCat has been found to be stealing personal information of Android and iPhone users. The malware, spotted by Kaspersky, was found on the iOS App Store, where such threats have been rare until now.

This malware works by sneaking into your phone's gallery and stealing images, it looks for things like cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases, passwords, or even private messages from screenshots. It uses an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tool, which scans images for certain keywords and sends them off to cybercriminals.

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While the malware has been downloaded more than 242,000 times from Google Play by Android users, we’re still not sure how many iPhone users have been affected. But the fact that it made it to the App Store is pretty concerning because, until now, Apple’s marketplace had been mostly safe from these kinds of apps.

Some of the apps known to be infected include the food delivery app ComeCome, and messaging apps like WeTink and AnyGPT. A few of these apps are still available for download on both Google Play and the App Store, so be cautious.