Cybercriminals are using Covid themed malicious apps, for fraudulent activities and fooling people. There has been recent news that a fake app claims to detect the blood oxygen level. Some of these read oxygen levels with the phone light and camera and others need fingerprint to check the oxygen level. Ananth Prabhu G, Cyber law and security trainer professor at Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management said that to be safe and cautious, people are checking the oxygen levels at home and hence some are falling prey to newly developed fake apps. Prabhu said, “There are safe oximeter apps too. But there is an increase in fake apps to steal data. Fingerprint data that is used for e-wallet transactions could be misused, personal photos and data can be stolen as the App asks for storage and gallery permissions during installation. Such apps can also read the SMS inbox that has bank account transaction alerts.” 

THe users should verify the developer, ratings, reviews, bugs and total downloads before installing an app. Sanjay Kaushik, Managing Director of Netrika Consulting India Pvt Ltd said that people download these apps as they think it  is quick and cheap. Researchers found that nowadays because of the COVID outbreak, developers of such fake apps say that apps can be used for pandemic-related subjects like testing, treatment, cure etc. They do this to attract people and make this click on links or PDF files so they can have access to personal information. Hence experts have advised people to be careful about the apps they download the permission they give. 

Tags

• Oximeter
• Hackers
• App
• Hacking
• Lockdown

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