Hackers can record Netflix fans’ private conversations and snap photos of them in the NUDE
Cyber crooks using fake version of the video app to take over victims' smartphones and snoop on their most intimate moments
HACKERS have unleashed a fake Netflix app that turns victims' Android smartphones into pervert spy devices.
Cyber-security experts have issued a red alert after discovering knock-off Netflix software which contains a piece of malware called SpyNote.
This nasty piece of software is called a trojan and is designed to sneak onto devices, take them over and then perform a variety of scary tasks.
Once a person's phone is infected, hackers can secretly take photos of their victim, perhaps snapping naked creep shots or capturing images of them in an intimate moment.
The malware can also make calls, record audio from the microphone and trace the movements of the smartphone's owner using the device's GPS location technology.
Shivang Desai, , wrote: "The iOS and Android apps for Netflix are enormously popular, effectively turning a mobile device into a television with which users can stream full movies and TV programs anytime, anywhere.
"But the apps, with their many millions of users, have captured the attention of the bad actors, too, who are exploiting the popularity of Netflix to spread malware."
SpyNote was first identified last year, but it has only recently been hidden within fake Netflix app.
Anyone who downloads apps from non-official sites is at risk.
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Jacob Soo, an analyst at Palo Alto Networks, wrote: "Installing apps from third-party sources can be very risky — those sources often lack the governance provided by official sources such as the Google Play Store, which, even with detailed procedures and algorithms to weed out malicious applications, is not impregnable."
Another dodgy fake app to keep an eye is a dodgy version of Super Mario Run for Android.
Although an Android port of this smartphone game is due for release this year, there is a fake app going around which has been dubbed Snooper Mario and has similar pervy spy capabilities as the knock-off Netflix.
Make sure you download apps from Google Play only if you want to stop hackers from attacking.
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