#Faceappchallenge has been trending on social media for many days now, and the viral app hasn’t stopped gaining popularity ever since. However, similar apps are tricking users into believing that it is a certified version of the popular app but turns out; these apps are only creating Malware in the user’s device.
Cybersecurity company Kaspersky Labs has noticed an adware module called “MobiDash,” which was being used to mask the Malware under the name of the famous app to infect users’ devices. “This means that the activities conducted by the fake version of FaceApp could intensify, especially if we are speaking about hundreds of targets in just a few days,” Igor Golovin, Security Researcher at Kaspersky, specified in a statement.
Alvin Rodrigues, Senior Director, Security Strategist, Forcepoint also chipped in according to a report by IANS, saying “From a security perspective, you are giving away your ability to use your face as a password to log files or to lock your devices. Like how several mobile companies are currently using facial recognition technology to allow users’ to lock their phones.
The first detections of the FaceApp fake were a week ago, but, according to Kaspersky data, there have been 500 unique users infected within the last 48 hours. “Once the application is downloaded from unofficial sources and installed,” Golovin continues “it simulates a failure and is subsequently removed. After that, a malicious module in the application rests discreetly on the user’s device, displaying adverts.”
Faceapp uploads the image of your face to FaceApp’s servers to run it through its neural networks to apply the filter. Although there’s no proof yet to FaceApp mishandling or mistreating user data, it’s still a good practice to take cares before signing up to viral apps that ask for sensitive data.
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